Berry takes personal leave from South Australia

Darren Berry is stepping aside from his role as coach of South Australia for family reasons, with no time-frame put on his return to the position.

Assistant coach Jeff Vaughan will act as the state's caretaker coach while Berry is on personal leave. The South Australian Cricket Association said in a statement on Wednesday that Berry had asked for privacy in relation to the reasons for his leave.

"Darren has asked SACA for an extended period of personal leave and we have respected his wishes to do so," Tim Nielsen, the SACA general manager of high performance, said. "There has been no time limit put on Darren's leave and the SACA will give him as much time as he needs.

"I would like to stress that Darren remains the coach of the Redbacks and Jeff Vaughan will step into the role in a caretaker position.

"We have fantastic support staff in our high performance department and have every confidence in our coaching team and our senior players to lead the team through the second half of the Sheffield Shield season."

The Sheffield Shield season resumes in a week and a half, with South Australia sitting in second-last position with one win from five games. They begin the back end of the campaign with a match against Western Australia in Perth, starting on February 7.