Graham Thorpe to be England batting coach in ODIs and T20s

Graham Thorpe, the former England middle-order batsman, has been appointed the batting coach for the England One-Day International and Twenty20 International sides on their tour of New Zealand in February-March 2013, with Graham Gooch given a break. Gooch will continue to be the batting coach for the England Test side.

The move follows the decision to appoint Ashley Giles as the full-time coach of the England limited-overs sides, with Andy Flower focussing on the Test team.

Thorpe, who was coaching the England Lions side, has been appointed only for the tour to New Zealand, but this could be the first step towards England having completely separate coaching staff for limited-overs matches.

According to a report in the  Daily Mail, Hugh Morris, the England managing director, stressed that Thorpe, 43, was appointed only for the New Zealand tour for the time being, and the situation would be assessed afresh after the tour.

"Graham Gooch's work in India made a real step change to the way we played spin bowling and was a factor in us winning that Test series," said Morris in the Daily Mail. "We've got an enormous amount of very high-profile Test cricket, and we want Graham [Gooch] to focus his attention on working one-on-one with our Test players."

Mark Ramprakash, who had filled in for Thorpe's absence when the England Lions team was in India playing in parallel with the national squad during their Test series against India, will take Thorpe's place once again for the England Lions' tour to Australia.

England will play New Zealand in three T20Is, three ODIs and three Tests from February 9 to March 26.