Graeme Hick named Cricket Australia high performance coach Stepping up: Graeme Hick. Former England Test batsman Graeme Hick has been appointed as the high performance coach at Cricket Australia's centre of excellence in Brisbane. Hick fills the role vacated by former Australian player Stuart Law, who replaced new national coach Darren Lehmann as Queensland boss in June. The Zimbabwe-born Hick, who played 65 Tests for his adopted homeland, will be charged mainly with looking after the Australia A and under-19 players. He will also be used as a specialised batting coach for state and international players when they train at the centre. "Graeme is a highly regarded former international batsman who has been a consultant coach this past winter working with our AIS scholars," Cricket Australia performance manager Pat Howard said. Graeme knows what it takes to compete at the top level and has had many years' experience playing in different conditions, which will be vital to the development of our young batters. He will complement the specialist skills with Troy Cooley and Tim Coyle who are responsible for our fast bowling and fielding programs respectively, as well as all national coaching staff in our pathway system including Darren Lehmann. Hick will begin his role by attending a batting forum in Sydney next month. Several former Australian cricketers and current coaches are expected to use the forum to provide information for the creation of a national batting program. Tests: 65 Debut: v West Indies, Leeds, 1991 Average: 31.32 Highest score: 178 (v India, Mumbai, Feb 1993) Debut: v West Indies, Birmingham, 1991 Average: 37.33 Highest score: 126no (v Sri Lanka, Adelaide, 1999) Scored 41,112 first-class runs at 52.23 including 136 centuries