Di Venuto resigns from Australia coaching job

Australia's batting coach Michael Di Venuto has officially resigned from his post to take the reins at Surrey in the England County competition.

Di Venuto will end his tenure prior to next month's World T20 tournament in India, and following Australia's three-match Twenty20 series in South Africa, beginning March 4 in Durban.

Following Di Venuto’s departure, Greg Blewett, the current fielding coach with the national squad will take on batting coach responsibilities. CA is considering options for back-filling Blewett’s fielding coach position.

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"I've thoroughly enjoyed my time working with the Australian team under Darren Lehmann," he said in a press release. "I'll miss working day in and day out with Australia’s best players but the opportunity to take on a head coach role at a club like Surrey was just too good to turn down.

"It's been a privilege to work with Australia's batsman and see the likes of Steve Smith and David Warner develop into consistent run scorers. 

"To see them have so much success on the international stage has been rewarding. What they have achieved is testament to their hard work and commitment to be the best players that they can be."

The former ODI batsman is clearly highly regarded by Cricket Australia, having assumed national head coach duties earlier this month when Darren Lehmann was unavailable due to deep vein thrombosis, and his rise as a batting mentor has largely paralleled Steve Smith's rapid ascension as one of the world's premier batsmen over the past two-and-a-half years.

Di Venuto took the position under Mickey Arthur in February 2013, and helped Australia emerge from the ruins of the India tour that immediately followed and into a largely productive period that included a return to the No.1 Test position a year later and a World Cup victory last March.

Much of Di Venuto's work has been attempting to assist his charges with the mental side of the game as much as the technical, with the 42-year-old well-known for offering slumping batsmen the same words of wisdom: "you're not out of form – you're out of runs".

"Having been out of form myself, and when you’re out of form you don’t really know what end to pick up the bat, it’s not a great feeling," Di Venuto told cricket.com.au last year. "But if you’re batting well in the nets, preparing well, sometimes the nature of the game that we play things don’t happen for you out in the field.

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"A lot things can go against you. One, you can make a bad decision yourself, or other things out of your control happen. That’s just part and parcel of the game that we play."

Last month, then Surrey coach Graham Ford left the county to take the head position at Sri Lanka.