John Mooney has replaced Shane McDermott as the fielding coach of Afghanistan. Mooney has the experience of working with the Afghanistan team from 2018 to 2019. The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) announced the news on August 27.
Mooney, who had a decent career with the Ireland team, has the experience of representing his country in three ODI World Cups and two T20I World Cups. He was part of the Irish squad that achieved a historic victory against Pakistan in the 2007 ODI World Cup. He also hit the winning runs against England in the 2011 ODI World Cup.
He played in 64 ODIs, scoring 963 runs at an average of 23.48, including three fifties with the best score of 96. He also took 48 wickets in ODIs. He played in 27 T20Is, scoring 231 runs and taking 10 wickets. He has Level 3, 2 and 1 coaching certificates.
Mooney retired from cricket in 2015. He was part of the coaching set-up for the West Indies in 2019. He has been working with the Ireland Women’s team since January this year.
Australia’s Nirmalan Thanabalasingam will be the new physiotherapist of the Afghanistan team. He worked as the High Performance Training and Rehabilitation Manager for Sri Lanka Cricket from 2017 to 2018. He has also worked with ICC World XI, Sydney Thunder, Rangpur Riders, West Harbour Rugby Union Club etc.
Afghanistan are currently preparing for the tri-nation T20I series against Pakistan and UAE in Abu Dhabi, as well as the upcoming Asia Cup 2025.
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