Victorian coach tasked with leading Stars' WBBL revival

Victorian coach Andrew Christie has been tasked with leading Melbourne Stars back to relevance in the Weber WBBL after being appointed the club's new women's head coach for the next two seasons.

Christie joins the Stars from crosstown rivals Melbourne Renegades where he has spent the past four years as an assistant coach.

He takes over the top role from Englishman Jonathan Batty, who the Stars parted ways with at the end of last season following a disastrous WBBL|10 campaign where they finished last with just two wins from their 10 games.

Batty's contract wasn't renewed after the team failed to play finals during his three years in change.

Christie, who has been head coach of Victoria in the Women's National Cricket League since May last year, now has the job of guiding the Stars back to finals action for the first time since WBBL|06 – the only time the side has qualified for the playoffs in the tournament's 10-year history.

"I'd like to thank the Melbourne Stars for their faith in me and I truly believe we have the group that can return this club back to the WBBL finals," Christie said today.

"It's a big challenge ahead of us with plenty of hard work to be undertaken but I look forward to working with Clint McKay, our T20 high performance manager, and the other coaches to ensure we get the best out of this group."

Christie's first assignment could be to secure Kim Garth's recommitment with the club yet to come to terms with the star quick having already lost Cricket Australia-contracted allrounder Tess Flintoff to the Renegades and exciting young spin prospect Hasrat Gill to the Thunder.

The Stars hold pick three in next month's WBBL|11 overseas player draft, with South African allrounder Marizanne Kapp also locked away as a direct signing until the end of WBBL|12.

Christie has enjoyed a swift rise after joining Cricket Victoria in 2021 to lead the Female Emerging Player Program and is a previous premiership-winning coach with Dandenong in women's Premier Cricket.

"Andy has a track record of success at every level he has coached and brings great relationships with the playing group, so we're excited to see what he can achieve with the Stars," said club general manager Max Abbott.

"We believe we've got a squad that has the talent to contend for the title and Andy's year-round connection to a lot of the players will be key for us to hit the ground running and improve our results in WBBL|11."