Leicestershire: Alfonso Thomas and James Taylor to remain as interim head coaches

Alfonso Thomas is in his second season as a coach at Leicestershire, while James Taylor is in his first

Former South Africa seamer Alfonso Thomas says he will work with ex-England batter James Taylor as joint interim head coach at Leicestershire until the end of the season.

The 46-year-old was working as assistant coach under Paul Nixon, who was removed as head coach on 22 June.

Thomas said he will work with Taylor, who steps up from batting coach, but added that he does not want to replace Nixon on a full-time basis.

"I'll not apply for the job," he said.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's only until the end of the season."

Thomas, who spent seven years at Somerset and took a combined 1,029 wickets in all three forms of the game across his entire career, said the opportunity to potentially step up as a permanent head coach of a first-class county had come too soon.

He was brought to Grace Road in March 2022 to work with Nixon and director of cricket Claude Henderson, who remains at the club.

"I've got no ambition to take this team forward as head coach by myself," Thomas told BBC Radio Leicester.

"For me personally, I stopped playing in 2015 and had a 10-year kind of journey that I wanted to go on. I don't think there is any rush for me to go into that.

"I'm quite happy doing what I'm doing, working with the bowlers and being assistant to whoever is going to come in."

'Two sides to every story'

Leicestershire chief executive Sean Jarvis last week denied the club is in crisis after Nixon was abruptly put on gardening leave.

Jarvis said he could not expand on the reasons for the decision with regard to Nixon for legal reasons, with Thomas also avoiding details.

"One thing my mother always told me is that there are two sides to every story, and I will leave it at that," Thomas added.

The coach was talking after Leicestershire hung on for a draw against Durham in their first County Championship game since Nixon was surprisingly put on gardening leave.

An unbeaten century by Peter Handscomb was instrumental in securing the result that moves the Foxes up to second in the Division Two table after eight games.

"The guys showed great fight," Thomas said.

"We spoke a lot in the winter about just being tougher to beat, and staying in games as long as we can.

"Don't get me wrong, by no means was this a good game for us. We need to start games better, we need to give ourselves an opportunity to compete over four days.

"This team is almost at its best when their backs are against the wall - that is when this team comes to the fore."