WHEN you think of a cricketer playing in two World Cup finals, you don’t necessarily associate that person joining a club in the West of England Premier League.

But at the County Ground yesterday, ex-England strike bowler and veteran of 44 Tests and 103 one-day internationals Phillip DeFreitas was named as Swindon’s new head coach.

Having worked as a bowling coach for Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and as assistant coach for Team Antigua alongside the legendary Sir Viv Richards in the Caribbean Premier League, the 50-year-old, nicknamed Daffy, is branching out on his own for the first time.

And the former Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Lancashire seamer, who took more than 1,000 wickets and scored in excess of 10,000 runs in a playing career that spanned 20 years, is hoping that his new WEPL Wiltshire division troops will buy into what he is trying to do.

“Apart from being a bowling coach at the counties and an assistant coach in the CPL, I have not really coached properly in the UK,” said DeFreitas, who is the only cricketer who has taken five-wicket hauls against all of the 18 first-class counties.

“It is an opportunity for me to get my own philosophies over and I looked at it and thought: 'great'.

“It is something that I can look forward to and enjoy.

“But they have to buy into it. You have got a lot of guys here; they are all amateurs and everyone works in the week, and sometimes they just want to come and relax and play cricket at the weekend.

“The more you are successful, the more you enjoy and want to do it. It is also about creating a different environment so that they want to do it.

“I think that is important and that is what I will be trying to do.”

As well as heading up the senior set-up at the County Ground, DeFreitas, who held his first indoor coaching session last weekend, will be working with the youth and girls sections at the club.

The Dominica-born bowler says that he wants to make sure that the sessions are enjoyable.

“You want the kids to come along and have a great day where it is all fun, not solely focused on the technical coaching,” said DeFreitas, who has also played first-class cricket in South Africa with Boland.

“I will be stressing that to all the coaches here. You are going to get parents who want their kids to go as far as they can do, but the ultimate thing for me is kids having fun.

“If they are, then they will return and they will tell their friends. If they are not, then they won’t come back.”