Former England and Yorkshire batsman Anthony McGrath has been named assistant head coach at Essex.

McGrath has been appointed to assist head coach Chris Silverwood, having spent his entire playing career with home county Yorkshire, making 583 appearances across all three formats of the game.

In addition he made four Test appearances for England, with a top score of 81 coming against Zimbabwe at Chester-le-Street in 2003.

In total he made 14,698 runs in his First Class career, including 35 centuries, and has been working as a player mentor and first XI coach since 2014 as Yorkshire won back-to-back County Championship titles.

Silverwood is delighted to have been able to add McGrath to his coaching team and has backed his new number two to help take the Essex batsmen to the next level.

“I’ve known Anthony for a very long time, and he is a great addition to our staff,” Silverwood said.

“He has excellent cricket knowledge, and during his interview it was clear he had a real passion for this job.

“He is a very good coach, and will help our batsmen improve their game. He has experience of working with some of the best batsmen in the country – names such as Bairstow, Root, Ballance, Lyth – so his experience will be invaluable to our players.

“We have a strong batting line up, and I am confident Anthony will complement it perfectly.”