Charlesworth says no to South Australia post

Ric Charlesworth, the former Western Australia batsman, has rejected an approach to coach South Australia and believes a return to his former state is blocked by the imminent appointment of Tom Moody. Charlesworth, who guided the Australian women's hockey team to two Olympic gold medals, is currently New Zealand Cricket's high performance manager, but he has plenty of domestic and international vacancies to consider.

Charlesworth told the West Australian he was approached by Rod Marsh, the South Australia high performance manager, last week but was not interested "at the moment". "There are a range of options," he said. "I'm not sure what I'm going to do."

While Moody has said he would not make a decision on his future until he spoke to the Sri Lankan board, Charlesworth said he talked to Western Australia officials and "Tom is going to do that job". "That would have been the better option for me as it's closer to home," he said. "I think Tom is the right choice. They have done very well to get him."

The paper reported Moody was due to announce his plans to head back to Perth last week, but he delayed the decision when Sri Lanka made the final. It said he was likely to wait until after a welcome home reception in Colombo on Thursday.

Greg Chappell, Dav Whatmore, John Buchanan and Bennett King stepped down after the World Cup to open up three international vacancies while the Australian Centre of Excellence also has a post available after Tim Nielsen's promotion to the senior set-up. Wayne Phillips resigned from the South Australia job at the end of the Australian season and Wayne Clark stepped down from Western Australia.