Natal's Graham Ford is set to be named the new national cricket coach today, having re-entered the race to succeed Bob Woolmer after the World Cup in May/June.

Ford, the front-runner for the post when he toured New Zealand as Woolmer's assistant in February and March, did not apply for the senior coach's job on his return as he felt it would force him to spend too much time away from home and his two young sons.

But the Maritzburg College product and the man who played a major role in Natal's revival in the 1990s, has reconsidered and yesterday confirmed to The Natal Witness that he has made himself available to take over as national coach when Woolmer steps down after the World Cup in England.

``It would be a great honour to be involved, but my initial fear was that I would be away from home for 300 days a year, which would be very unfair on my wife and my two young sons. But over the weekend I was in contact with United Cricket Board (UCB) officials, who pointed out that the itinerary over the next two years is not as bad as the hectic schedule of recent seasons.

``In fact, over the next two years the national team is expected to be away from home for only five months. During a normal season with Natal I don't see my family that much anyway, as I'm usually home after dark, and Liz (Ford's wife) and I have sat down and worked it out that it would be possible to do the job,'' Ford said yesterday.

Ford went up for an interview with the UCB executive over the weekend and managing director Ali Bacher said yesterday in Johannesburg that the announcement of the new national coach would be delayed till today as ``a provincial coach who was formerly unavailable has now indicated he is interested''.

Ford took over a battling Natal team in 1992/93 and played a major role in the development of current national squad members Derek Crookes, Jonty Rhodes, Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener and Dale Benkenstein.

His role in helping the batsmen on the New Zealand tour, where several batting records were broken, has also drawn praise, with Gary Kirsten and Daryll Cullinan both publicly acknowledging Ford's input.

Other provincial coaches in the running are Hylton Ackerman (Boland) and Peter Kirsten (Northerns), who both applied some weeks ago, while Western Province's Duncan Fletcher, who resigned as coach of the SA A team last year, has a lucrative contract with English county Glamorgan which would be very difficult to buy out given the current value of the pound.

Ford has been named as one of Woolmer's assistants for South Africa's World Cup campaign in England and it has been an open secret that, provided he wanted the job and got on with Hansie Cronje and the team in New Zealand, he would take the reins over from Woolmer from next season.

South Africa's itinerary 1999-2001

November/December 1999, January 2000: England tour South Africa
February/March 2000: South Africa tour India
August 2000: South Africa tour Sri Lanka
November/December 2000: New Zealand tour South Africa
November/December 2000, January 2001: Pakistan tour South Africa
February/March 2001: South Africa tour West Indies
October/November 2001: India tour South Africa
December 2001, January 2002: South Africa tour Australia
February/March/ April 2002: Australia tour South Africa
November/December 2002, January 2003: West Indies tour South Africa
February/March 2003: World Cup in South Africa.