'He's quite unbelievable': Prized import to return in co-coaching role

Former first-class cricketer Jack Burnham has signed on with Northern Raiders as co-coach alongside returning mentor Jimmy Elford for season 2024-25.

The 27-year-old, a former England under 19 player who scored two first-class centuries for Durham, returns to the Raiders after playing for the club in 2022-23 where he scored 520 division one runs and represented Warrnambool at country week level.

In total, the aggressive right-hander scored 930 runs at an average of 58.12 across all formats of cricket in his sole season in Australia but his campaign was cut short by a nasty broken leg late in the year.

Raiders president Peter Harris said bringing Burnham back to the Purnim-based club was always part of the plans and was excited to see how he would go taking on a dual-coaching position combined with his ability with the bat.

"We feel he's going to do a great job and take on that responsibility from the juniors all the way up," he said.

"Our year this was a bit up and down (in division one) but finished the year off really strongly. We probably felt in the two-day cricket we needed another batsmen to come in and bat for long periods of time.

"We all know what Jack can do, he can win games off his own bat. He adds a lot of leadership from a batting point of view, he's quite unbelievable.

"Jimmy's coaching grew unbelievably, his leadership was outstanding and to bring Jack, he indicated he wanted to come back, we felt like we needed to utilise his skills. Jimmy was the one who suggested a co-role with him which we were more than happy to go with.

"Both are in their mid to late twenties but are both experienced cricketers so we feel it's going to lead our club moving forward."

The Raiders have also confirmed fellow English all-rounder Jake Louth will return for a second season at the club and were actively in talks with some potential recruits.

Harris said the club was excited by the direction of the playing group.

"He (Louth) was vice-captain this year and had a very good year with the ball, he really came a long way," he said.

"We've basically kept our entire list which is exciting, but we're working on a few more (recruits). There's a bit in the pipeline."