Australia coach Tim Nielsen's job at risk after Ashes loss to England

Cricket Australia is set to debate the future of the national coach, Tim Nielsen. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the CA board will meet in Melbourne on 8 February to discuss a range of issues arising from Australia's 3-1 Ashes defeat against England. The meeting is a regular fixture on the CA calendar, but one official was quoted as saying that "there will be plenty to say". The paper also said that sources had claimed there had been disquiet over the comments made by the national selection chairman, Andrew Hilditch, on Friday. Hilditch said of his four-man panel: "I think we've done a very good job as a selection panel." The exclusion of the spinner Nathan Hauritz and the handling of the fast bowler Doug Bollinger, who played (and struggled) only in the second Test at Adelaide, continue to rankle with some. The future of the opener Phillip Hughes has also been questioned. Hilditch's contract expires after the World Cup and there are calls for CA's first full-time selector, Greg Chappell, to replace him. Nielsen has led Australia to two Ashes defeats, two Test series defeats in India and a series loss against South Africa. Nielsen was given a three-year contract before the Ashes but some officials say they may have made the wrong decision. "If contracts need to be paid out to get the right outcome, then so be it," one leading official said. Nielsen will coach the side until the end of the World Cup but if Australia fail there he says he expects his position to come under scrutiny. "I expect us all to be looked at, and talked to, in the review,'' he said. "The planning was there, it was just our inability as a group to do what we wanted with bat and ball." The future of the batting coach, Justin Langer, will also be under discussion while the bowling coach, Troy Cooley, who held the role with England during their victorious 2005 Ashes campaign, will leave after the World Cup to take a job developing young talent at Brisbane's Centre of Excellence.