Andy Christie will step back into an assistant role with the women’s team this season
Melbourne Stars are on the hunt for a new women’s head coach with Andy Christie (pictured above) to step back into an assistant role with the club.
The Stars confirmed Christie’s transition to assistant coach after recently advertising for the WBBL head coach position online, where one of the key requirements is to “deliver sustained success”.
Christie will continue to lead Victoria’s state women’s team this coming summer as they seek to rebound from a disastrous 2025-26 campaign where they finished dead last with zero wins and negative one points due to an over-rate infraction.
“With the realignment at Cricket Victoria, the Stars will recruit a head coach to be solely focused on the WBBL, with Andy working closely alongside them to tie the state and WBBL programs together,” the Stars said in a statement.
Christie has been Victoria’s WNCL head coach since 2024 and had replaced Jonathan Batty as the Stars’ coach last year when the Englishman’s contract wasn’t renewed after WBBL|10 when the team failed to play finals in his three years at the helm.
The Stars did show improvement under Christie in WBBL|11 last year, finishing fourth before losing the Knockout final to the third-ranked Perth Scorchers at the WACA Ground.
His move won’t be the only coaching change at the Stars this summer with Cameron White expected to replace Peter Moores as the club’s new men’s head coach.
White had been Melbourne Renegades head coach for the past two seasons but moves to the Stars as part of a Cricket Victoria restructure ahead of their intended 100 per cent sale of the Renegades licence to a private investor.
The Stars will be the only Big Bash entity operated by CV going forward, with the Renegades to be run independently away from CV’s Junction Oval headquarters until a sale is finalised. They will still be funded by the state body.
CV’s longer-term vision is to rebrand the Stars franchise into a ‘Melbourne’ team with a new moniker and playing kit, but the organisation ran out of time to make the changes they wanted ahead of the coming summer. Both the Stars and Renegades will take the field in their traditional green and red colours respectively in Weber WBBL|12 and KFC BBL|16.
Moores, who has led the Stars to consecutive BBL finals appearances in the past two seasons, had previously indicated he wanted to stay at the club to see out the final year of his contract, likely in a senior assistant position.
The reshuffle leaves the Renegades searching for a new men’s coach for this season, with veteran mentor Greg Shipperd, and former Australian-capped wicketkeepers Ryan Campbell and Luke Ronchi candidates linked with the role.
They also need to appoint a new women’s head coach after Simon Helmot stepped down in May to join Gulf Giants in the United Arab Emirates’ T20 competition, which is played in November and December like the WBBL season.
Meanwhile, CV announced on Monday that Wade Seccombe had been appointed men’s head of cricket, which will see him take charge of Victoria’s Sheffield Shield, One-Day Cup and T20 high performance programs.
Seccombe, who previously led the Renegades WBBL and BBL high performance programs, replaces David Hussey who stepped down in May after almost four years in the role.
