He is due to take charge of his Belgian club Dexia Mons-Hainaut on Saturday for the last time before heading for the US where he will coach the Rio Grande Vipers, a satellite team of the Rockets who play in the NBA Development Basketball League (NDBL).

He will be officially unveiled at a press conference in Texas next Wednesday.

Finch announced his decision to his players after training in Mons this afternoon.

The 38-year-old, who is originally from Florida, took over as Britain's coach in 2006 and has combined the role with his job at Mons for the last two years.

Under Finch, Britain has started to make giant strides and earlier this month competed in the European Championships for the first time since 1981.

There they lost all three of their matches in Poland against Slovenia, Spain and Serbia.

But all their opponents progressed to the semi-finals of the tournament and Britain came close to beating world champions Spain, who went onto lift the European trophy.

Finch started his coaching career in England with the Sheffield Sharks of the British Basketball League (BBL), leading them to several titles, and making the franchise the most successful in league history.

After winning the Championship with Sheffield in the 1998-99 season, he was named as the BBL Coach of the Year.

He moved to Europe for a fresh challenge and to Germany, where he was the head coach of the Giessen 46ers in the Basketball Bundesliga.

Finch was fired after having a record of only four wins in 17 matches, leaving the team on the verge of relegation.

After this, he moved to Belgium, where he was the coach of Euphony Bree for two seasons before signing for league rivals Dexia Mons-Hainaut in 2007.

Finch led them to the final of the Eurochallenge and Belgium Cup in 2008 and this year they finished runners-up in the Belgium Championships.

Finch said: "It was a hard decision to make but it was just too good an opportunity to turn down."

Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, said: "Chris is a young, up-and-coming coach who already has a wealth of coaching experience.

"Chris has been instrumental in the re-building of Great Britain's fledgling national team program and I believe he will employ that same passion and commitment to elevating the level of Vipers basketball.

"We will work closely with Chris to ensure that the Vipers implement the same successful philosophies employed by the Rockets."

British Basketball refused to comment.

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