Warwickshire County Cricket Club has appointed its former County Championship-winning Captain Jim Troughton as First Team Coach. Troughton (37) has been an Assistant Coach at the club since retiring from playing in 2014 and will oversee all Warwickshire and Birmingham Bears men's first team matters and will be supported in this new role by Club Captain Ian Bell, Bowling Coach Alan Richardson and Batting & Second Team Coach Tony Frost as part of a new structure for the club.

Neil Snowball, Chief Executive of Warwickshire CCC, said: "Jim is widely recognised as one of the finest leaders in the Club's history and the team made outstanding progress during his time as captain.

He has continued to demonstrate his leadership qualities since moving into coaching and, in accepting this new role, he will take control of all matters relating to the senior men's squad including preparations for the new season and our pre-season tour to Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

We are very confident that they will form a strong partnership to take the team forward.”

Troughton enjoyed a 14-year playing career with the Bears and was named as Captain ahead of the 2011 season, finishing as very close runners-up in his first season as skipper before leading the Bears to a seventh County Championship and a one-day cup final at Lord's in 2012 before injury forced him to retire from playing prematurely in 2014.

Jim Troughton said: "Having grown up as a Bear and spent all of my cricketing life at Edgbaston, Warwickshire CCC obviously means a huge amount to me and to take this next step in my career as First Team Coach is a great honour.

I'm very excited by the challenge.”