“Alex was a dynamic player with a great work ethic."
Ex-England cricketer Alex Hartley is set to be appointed as a coach by the Pakistan Super League side Multan Sultans.
She will become a specialist spin bowling coach and the role could involve working with Adil Rashid.
Hartley will become one of the first women to work in a coaching role in the professional men’s game.
Rashid represented Multan in the last edition of the PSL and will work with Hartley if he is retained by the franchise. Retentions for the 2024 season are yet to be confirmed.
Multan Sultans are also set to appoint Catherine Dalton – who had a brief international career with Ireland – as a fast bowling coach.
Alex Hartley’s official job title will be assistant spin bowling coach and she will work alongside the yet-to-be-announced chief spin bowling coach.
The appointments fit into a growing trend of female coaches getting opportunities in men’s sports.
In July 2023, Hannah Dingley had a brief stint as caretaker manager of Forest Green, becoming the first woman to take charge of a professional English Football League club.
The first female coach in professional men’s cricket is believed to be Sarah Taylor, who was appointed as wicketkeeping coach with Sussex in 2021.
Multan Sultans’ managing director Ali Tareen hopes that the appointments will accelerate gender equality in the sport.
He said: “At the Multan Sultans, we value the structural development of cricket as highly as success on the pitch.
“One crucial aspect of this structural development is our unwavering focus on gender equity throughout the organisation.
“We take great pride in being guided by one of the world’s first female general managers in franchise cricket.
“Although exceptional women coaches exist globally, there has historically been a barrier hindering their entry into men’s teams as coaches – despite the fact that the opposite scenario is quite common.
“We would like to help break this barrier.”
“At the Sultans, women coaches have been an integral part of our youth cricket academies for many years now, making their inclusion in our team a seamless and welcomed evolution.”
In August 2023, Sultans appointed Hijab Zahid as their general manager.
Alex Hartley retired from professional cricket in August 2023.
She represented England in 28 ODIs and four T20Is from 2016 to 2019 and took two vital wickets to help England defeat India in the 2017 World Cup final at Lord’s.
She holds a Level 2 coaching qualification and has coached Lancashire age-group girls sides, but Multan Sultans will be her first major coaching job in either the men’s or women’s professional game.
Ali Tareen continued: “Alex was a dynamic player with a great work ethic.
“She has been working with young players at her county for a few years now and we are very excited to have her part of our coaching and development team.”
The next edition of the PSL is due to begin in February 2024. Multan Sultans won the 2021 title and were runners-up in 2022 and 2023.
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