New England head coach Trevor Bayliss twice turned down the job, according to former Australia bowler Geoff Lawson.

Bayliss, 52,

was appointed

on Tuesday, but New South Wales bowling coach Lawson says his former colleague rejected the offer before Peter Moores took charge in 2014.

“He said no then, and in fact last week he also said no again,” said Lawson.

Lawson said the chance to work with England assistant coach Paul Farbrace was influential in Bayliss’s decision.

“Those two worked together way back in Kent days and Sri Lanka,” Lawson, 57, told BBC Radio 4.

“They’ve got a very good working relationship and Trevor likes to have people around him he knows he can trust and knows what they can produce.

“And they (the England and Wales Cricket Board) have made him a very good offer.”

Moores, who was also England head coach between 2007 and 2009,

was sacked

for the second time in May.

Australian Bayliss, coach of Sri Lanka from 2007 until 2011, was combining coaching roles with New South Wales in Australia and Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League before accepting the England role.

Lawson added: “He was very happy doing his IPL job six or seven weeks a year, plus looking after New South Wales the rest of the time.

“He had a pretty full schedule. After about four years with Sri Lanka he was looking to spend a bit more time at home.”

Bayliss will take charge of England in time for the start of July’s Ashes series against Australia, whom he coached in Twenty20s last year.

Farbrace, stand-in coach for

England’s victory over New Zealand

in the first Test, will remain in charge for the final Test at Headingley starting on Friday.