Julien Fountain

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Julien Fountain

Personal information
Full name	Julien Fountain
Born	(1970-07-25) 25 July 1970 (age 54) Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, England
Nickname	Jules, The Professor, The Baseball Guy
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm off break
Role	Coach
Source: Cricinfo

Julien Fountain (born 25 July 1970) is an English professional cricket coach and former Great Britain baseball player. He is a specialist fielding coach. However, has also taken the role of head coach and assistant coach. During his career he has worked on the coaching staffs of various national cricket teams, including the West Indies, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and England. Fountain was part of the coaching staff for the Dhaka Gladiators of the Bangladesh Premier League during their 2012 season, when the team won the league.

Fountain is notable as the first baseball player to be used as a specialist fielding coach by any test-level cricket team, when he joined the West Indies team as a coach in 1998.^[1] Fountain also became the first baseball coach to be a head coach of an International Cricket Council full member team when he was temporarily appointed as head coach of Bangladesh in 2010.

In July 1988, Fountain, a pitcher, was selected to represent Great Britain U19 Baseball Team at the European Championships in Bordeaux, France. The following year he made his debut for the Great Britain national baseball team. He also represented Great Britain in the European Baseball Championship in 1989, and again in 1991.^[2] In 1989, Fountain played for Great Britain against the Major League Players Alumni Legends team at Old Trafford Cricket Ground. In 2002, he was recalled to the Great Britain team during a qualification tournament in Stockholm, Sweden.

In 1996, Fountain was approached by the British Baseball Federation to assist with a cricket course run by the National Cricket Association. This course was organized by Gordon Lord, who then involved Fountain with the coaching of England youth teams.^[3] He later became the fielding specialist coach for all the England youth teams and coached notable players such as Andrew Flintoff, Chris Read, Ben Hollioake, Graeme Swann, Michael Carberry, and Owais Shah. He also coached the England women's cricket team.^[4]

In 1998 Fountain was appointed by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to coach the West Indies 'A' Team in Antigua. He was asked to also accompany the full West Indies cricket team on their tour of South Africa^[1] and the WICB Advanced Course in Trinidad and Tobago. He was later retained as part of the West Indies backroom staff under head coach Malcolm Marshall. He rejoined the senior team in Jamaica and for a series in Barbados.^[5][6][7]

Fountain accompanied the West Indies team to the United Kingdom for the Cricket World Cup. In 2000, following his involvement with the West Indies in the Caribbean and the Cricket World Cup, he was appointed as head coach of Queens Park Cricket Club in Trinidad. While at the club, fountain worked with players such as Dwayne Bravo and Devon Smith. While coaching in Trinidad, Fountain was approached to rejoin the West Indies team for their 2000-2001 Australia tour. During this tour Fountain took the field twice as West Indies substitute fielder. Following the tour of Australia, he returned with for a series against South Africa. This series saw Fountain's involvement diminished with allegations of underhand treatment of Fountain and other management members by the WICB.^[8] Fountain later parted ways with the team.

Fountain was approached by the Pakistan Cricket Board to act as assistant and specialist coach for the Pakistan A cricket team^[9] on their tour of Sri Lanka^[10] under head coach Mudassar Nazar.^[11] Fountain also accompanied the team back to Pakistan where he was held coaching clinics at major cricket academies in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Rawalpindi. Fountain attended a week-long camp in Karachi under the guidance of head coach Richard Pybus with the senior Pakistan national cricket team, working with the players prior to their upcoming home series.

In 2006, Fountain was hired by Bob Woolmer as a specialist fielding coach for the Pakistan national cricket team on their tour of England. He was used by both junior and senior players such as Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, and Shahid Afridi as a one-to-one batting coach. Fountain was present for the 2006 ball-tampering controversy which occurred during this tour.

In 2007, the West Indies cricket team were touring England when head coach David Moore requested Fountain's assistance^[12] as a specialist fielding coach for the remainder of the NPower Test Series and the ODI / T20 series. Fountain acted as a substitute fielder against the Marylebone Cricket Club.

Fountain returned to the National Cricket Performance Centre in England and was later selected as the head coach of the national Under 16 team for a series against Australia. It was also at this time that he coached England T20 specialist players at the National Performance Centre, prior to their departure to South Africa for the T20 Cricket World Cup.

In 2007, Fountain was contacted by the organizers of the Stanford T20 Cricket tournament to assess, coach and audit their new professional franchises. In 2008, Fountain was again hired by Stanford T20 Cricket, as the fielding coach for the newly formed Stanford Superstars team.^[13] The Stanford Superstars were to play in the Stanford Super Series of cricket between Middlesex County Cricket Club from England, along with Trinidad and Tobago national cricket team, England and the Superstars in a round robin series of games, culminating in a game against England for $20 million. The Superstars won the series, winning every game and received the $20 million prize, the largest winners pay cheque ever offered in cricket.^[14][15]

Fountain helped as a fielding coach for Bangladesh against New Zealand. This is the first time Bangladesh had a series win over a full-strength, Test-playing nation in its 10-year history. As well as handling the fielding,^[16] he took a small hand in both batting & bowling coaching whilst working with Bangladesh.^[17] During the 2010 series against Zimbabwe, Fountain was temporarily appointed as head coach, whilst Jamie Siddons attended the birth of his second child in Australia. He was also on the coaching staff for the Bangladesh national cricket team during the 2011 Cricket World Cup, where Bangladesh had three wins and three losses and were knocked out at the group stage.

Having both had experience as baseball, Fountain and Ian Pont, while coaching Bangladesh, combined to use their cricket and baseball backgrounds to design a completely new slower ball for pace bowlers or variation ball for spin bowlers.^[18]

In 2012, Fountain was hired as specialist fielding coach by the Dhaka Gladiators in the Bangladesh Premier League. The year Fountain coached, the team won the final by defeating the Barisal Bruners.

In March 2012, Fountain was appointed as specialist fielding coach for Pakistan. While coaching Pakistan, Fountain participated in notable tournaments such as the Asia Cup, the ICC T20 World Cup, and the ICC Champions Trophy.

In 2014, Fountain was hired as head coach of South Korea for the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.^[19] South Korea played three games during the tournament and reached the quarter-finals, where they were beaten by Sri Lanka.^[20]

In 2009, Fountain was appointed as specialist fielding coach to the Irish cricket team under former West Indies cricketer, Phil Simmons, during their World Cup Qualifying Tournament in South Africa. Ireland won the tournament and retained their ODI status and qualified for the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Fountain also assisted Ireland when they played against Scotland and England.^[21][22]

In December 2009, Fountain held clinics for the Canada Under 19 and West Indies Under 19 squads, prior to their entry into the 2010 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.^[23] He was also hired to assist the Canadian team with preparing for the Jamaica Cricket Festival in 2010.

In March 2010, Fountain joined Bermuda as part of their coaching staff for their preparation camp held at the High Performance Centre at University of Pretoria, South Africa, for a short tour of Namibia.^[24][25] In May, Fountain was again hired by Bermuda to help with the team's preparation for the ICC Americas Division 1 Championship.

In January 2015, Fountain launched a project in the USA designed to help former professional baseball players make the transition to playing T20 Cricket.^[26]

In February 2015, Fountain was invited to join the Honorary Advisory Board of the American Cricket Federation.^[27]

• Julien Fountain's Cricinfo Player page
• Julien Fountain's Pakpassion Blog
• Julien Fountain's Switch Hit 20 website