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Giles confirmed as new Lancashire coach

Eleven days after their relegation in the County Championship, Lancashire have entrusted Ashley Giles with restoring the club's fortunes, appointing him as their new cricket director and head coach.

Ashley Giles missed out on a full-time job with England and now returns to county cricket  •  Getty Images

Ashley Giles missed out on a full-time job with England and now returns to county cricket  •  Getty Images

Eleven days after their relegation in the County Championship, Lancashire have entrusted Ashley Giles with restoring the club's fortunes, appointing him as their new cricket director and head coach, while Glen Chapple has stepped down as captain.
Giles takes over after a summer in which first-team duties at Old Trafford were shared between Chapple, who takes on a player-coach role, and Gary Yates following Peter Moores' departure in the early weeks of the season for the England job.
However, Chapple did not confirm how much he would play next season and left it in the hands of Giles to decide how to use him. "Playing on is still an option for me. A big part of me has wanted to move towards coaching," he said. "If I am needed to play then I will still enjoy doing it."
Giles arrives at Old Trafford with a slightly mixed CV. He led Warwickshire to the Championship in 2012 but was passed over for the role of England head coach after a poor performance in the World T20 earlier this year. He was also interviewed for the director of cricket vacancy at Somerset.
"Ashley Giles is a highly respected and regarded coach with a track record of success in the county game," Lancashire chairman Michael Cairns said. "He has a tremendous amount of international experience garnered through a playing and coaching career. He is an exceptional candidate for a county like Lancashire and we are delighted to have secured his services."
Giles added: "Lancashire is a massive club with a rich pedigree and history, and I am thrilled by the prospect of coaching them. It is our intention to return to Division One but our main aim is create something both successful and sustainable, which a club with such an incredible history deserves."
The 2014 season proved to be a difficult one for Lancashire in which they won only three Division One games. Just before the start of the campaign, Moores left to become England's new coach. The then director of cricket, Mike Watkinson, whose departure after 32 years' service at Old Trafford paved the way for Giles' appointment, opted not to appoint a full-time replacement for Moores, although Watkinson was asked even in April whether the ECB had approached him with a view to engaging Giles' services in some capacity.
The appointment of Giles should be followed by a welcome redefinition of coaching responsibilities at Old Trafford. Following Kyle Hogg's retirement and despite the recruitment of Nathan Buck, some might argue that 40-year-old Chapple is still of most value to the club as a captain and frontline bowler and that his coaching ambitions should be put on hold for a year or so.
But that decision, along with many others at Old Trafford, will now be taken by Giles. One accusation that cannot be levelled at Old Trafford officials this autumn is that of dragging their heels. At a Members' Forum, chairman Michael Cairns announced that a root and branch review of cricket operations would be undertaken at the end of the season.
Giles is the main beneficiary of the initial stages of that review and Watkinson, the chief casualty. Watkinson took the brunt of the criticism in a season in which Lancashire were beaten finalists in the NatWest T20 Blast but were relegated in the Championship.
The success of Yorkshire's Academy has also caused disquiet across the Pennines as Lancashire have become increasingly concerned that their own production line suffers by comparison.
Watkinson's departure ends a 32-year association as player, captain, cricket manager and, for the last five years, as cricket director. Lancashire announced that he had "decided to seek a fresh challenge in his career."
His Lancashire career was an extensive one, involving more than 10,000 runs and 739 wickets in 308 first-class matches and a similarly weighty return in the limited-overs format. He also won nine limited-overs trophies with Lancashire, yet even though he seemed destined for big things when he understudied Duncan Fletcher on three England tours, he was unable to build such a successful period in his coaching career.
He was, though, involved in one notable success in 2011 when Lancashire's won their first outright Championship title since 1934 under the guidance of Moores, who was in between his two spells as England coach.
This article was updated at 00.01 on Wednesday October 8 to reflect Giles' appointment

David Hopps is the UK editor of ESPNcricinfo