Farbrace left his role at Edgbaston in order to spend more time with his family, who live in Kent, but is due to spend two of the next four months in the UAE, coaching Team Abu Dhabi in the Abu Dhabi T10 after taking the role on last year, before returning in January as head coach of Sharjah Warriors in the inaugural ILT20.
“Before I took the job at Warwickshire, I was offered the head coach role at one of the Hundred teams when I came back from [England’s tour to] the West Indies,” Farbrace told ESPNcricinfo. “But I turned it down at the last minute because the Warwickshire role had come up.
“I definitely would be interested, if things go well at these two franchises and an opportunity comes up in the Hundred. If I get a chance next year, that could be a nice way to go. As much as I love county cricket, the Hundred is a great tournament.”
Farbrace hopes to use the winter to see whether he can take his skills as a coach from county and international cricket into the franchise world, and is approaching the challenge with an open mind. “For the first time in my life, I’ve actually given myself a bit of a breather,” Farbrace said. “The only time I’ve ever been in this position is when I got the sack at Kent 11 years ago.
“I don’t know yet whether franchise cricket is for me or not but I’ve got these two opportunities and it gives me a chance to see what I want to do. Warwickshire was a 12-months-of-the-year job and after four years living in Birmingham with my wife living in Kent, it was probably the right time. With franchise cricket, you can do a month away and then a month at home.”
“We’ve learned from last year in how we’ve set our squad up: we took the second-most wickets and thought that would slow runs rates down at the end but didn’t quite manage that, and that cost us, so we’ve got a little bit more variation in our attack this time round. It’s a brilliant environment to be around with world-class players in every team.”