BREAKING: Northants 'part company' with head coach John Sadler

The 42-year-old departs Wantage Road after three years in charge, with the announcement coming just hours after of the Steelbacks' 17-run Vitality Blast quarter-final defeat at the hands of Somerset on Thursday night.

The club is set to invite applications to replace Sadler, but for the last three County Championship matches of the season, assistant coaches Greg Smith and Rory Kleinveldt, as well as second team coach Graeme White, will take charge of first team affairs.

A club statement read: "Northamptonshire County Cricket Club has today parted company with head coach John Sadler.

"John became head coach in September 2021 and throughout his tenure at Wantage Road, has led the club with professionalism, dedication and a strong work ethic.

"John guided the club to the quarter-finals of this season’s Vitality Blast and has been a much valued member of the Northants team. Everyone at the club wishes him well in his future career.

"The process for recruitment of a replacement for the position is under way and the current assistant coaches will take charge of the squad until the end of the current campaign."

Initially brought in as assistant to David Ripley ahead of the 2020 campaign, Sadler took over the top job in September 2021 after Ripley had stepped down.

Qualification for this year's Blast quarter-finals was the only time the team managed to do that in Sadler's three years at the helm, while they failed to progress from the group stages of the One Day Cup in any of the past three seasons.

In red ball cricket, Northants performed reasonably well in 2022 as they finished sixth in the County Championship Division One, winning two matches and drawing seven, but they then finished rock bottom in 2023 to suffer relegation.

They again managed two wins, but also suffered a damaging eight defeats as they mustered just 96 points from 14 matches.

This season has once again been a struggle in Championship Division Two, with the County sitting second from bottom in the table, having failed to win any of their 11 fixtures to date.

Indeed, Northants have won just one of their past 23 first-class matches, and that was the final match of last season when they saw off Essex in a dead rubber.

Away from the results, there have also been some high-profile player departures after relationships with Sadler appeared to have become strained.

The the most notable of these saw promotion-winning red ball skipper Adam Rossington leave for Essex on the eve of the 2022 campaign, and former white ball captain Josh Cobb leave the club 'by mutual agreement' in January of this year.

Cobb had been sidelined and not selected for any cricket after a T20 defeat at Birmingham Bears on June 9 last season.