'Buck' Rogers named new coach of Victoria

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Former Australia test opener Chris "Buck" Rogers was named head coach of Victoria on Wednesday, charged with returning the powerhouse state to the top of Sheffield Shield cricket.

Rogers, who was handed a two-year deal, scored more than 25,000 first-class runs, including 2,000 as first-choice opener for the test side after a recall late in his career, before retiring in 2016.

"I’m looking forward to working with this talented squad of players and coaches," said Rogers, who has coached in Cricket Australia's high-performance set-up for the last two years.

"I've been lucky enough to work with many of the Victorian players in recent years and I look forward to working with them to achieve individual and team success."

Victoria finished second behind New South Wales in the truncated 2019-20 Sheffield Shield competition but were second-to-last in the most recent edition of the domestic limited overs tournament, the Marsh One-Day Cup.

Prolific former test quick Jason Gillespie was announced as the new coach of South Australia last week.

The dates for 2020-21 Sheffield Shield season have yet to be announced because of uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by Peter Rutherford)