Former England star Loye excited by Bangladesh challenge

Mal Loye had a 20-year career in first-class cricket and has continued to play at Minor Counties level

Former Northants opener Mal Loye says he is excited by the challenge after becoming head coach of Bangladesh Cricket's high performance programme.

Loye, who made seven one-day international appearances for England, enjoyed a 20 year first-class career for Northants and Lancashire.

The 42-year-old begins work in Bangladesh next month.

Loye told BBC Radio Northampton the job would be tough, but he had taken it on to evolve as a person and a coach.

"Life out there has its challenges, but that's part of the reason I wanted to go, and the biggest challenge will actually be leaving my young family for a couple of months at a time," he admitted.

"But it's something I need to do for my career, and I'm really excited about working with international players again."

Loye scored over 15,000 first-class runs for Northamptonshire and Lancashire, almost 9,000 List A runs, and 1,246 runs in T20 matches. He retired in 2011, though has continued to play for Buckinghamshire.

He continued: "It's the next generation of players they're hoping to produce for that country, there'll be one or two players on the fringe of the full Bangladesh team, I guess it's like an "A" team in England terms, and a few under-19s as well."

Loye has been working as a coach at Wellingborough and Oundle schools, as well as providing expert commentary on his former county side for BBC Radio Northampton. He will work under Bangladesh national academy director of coaching Paul Terry.

"Paul is someone I played against and who I know pretty well," said Loye.

"I played around the world for 20 years, at first class and international level, I recently completed my level four coaching as well, and hopefully I'll be able to use that experience and knowledge to help transform promising players into international players."