Ashley Giles has become the first casualty from England’s chastening, error-strewn defeat in the men’s Ashes this winter after being sacked as director of men’s cricket and replaced by Andrew Strauss on an interim basis.
Giles met the England and Wales Cricket Board on Wednesday morning after recently submitting his review into the failed tour and was told his three-year spell in charge of the national team was terminated with immediate effect.
Strauss stood down from the role in 2018 but has since remained an adviser to the ECB board and chairs its cricket performance committee. The former Test captain will now seemingly decide the fate of Chris Silverwood as head coach looking ahead to England’s tour of the Caribbean in March.
Neither Silverwood nor Graham Thorpe, the assistant coach, were mentioned in the statement confirming the departure of Giles but appear unlikely to remain in their roles. It comes after a sorry run of Test results that produced just one win from the team’s past 14 outings and ended with the 4-0 defeat in Australia.
Joe Root, the Test captain, also sees his position under scrutiny despite stating a desire to continue after the Ashes. The 31-year-old received a strong endorsement from Tom Harrison, the chief executive of the ECB, before the 146-run defeat in the fifth Test in Hobart just over a fortnight ago.
Unless Silverwood survives, the likelihood is that England’s three‑Test series against West Indies that starts in Antigua on 8 March will be a holding pattern of sorts, with an interim head coach placed in charge of the backroom staff. Who selects this squad – due next week – remains to be seen.
Giles had made an impassioned plea to remain in charge upon arriving in Sydney in December with the Ashes already lost, citing the strains of Covid-19 on the squad over the previous two years and warning that sackings would achieve little if the English game did not address its systemic shortcomings.
However, despite some underlying truths here it could not excuse a flawed campaign in terms of cricketing strategy. This was led by Silverwood, the head coach Giles had personally hired in 2019 and then promoted in April last year by sacking Ed Smith and handing over full responsibility for selection.
Giles oversaw England’s 2019 World Cup win during his first year in charge – a project set up chiefly by Strauss, it must be said – and after appointing Silverwood at the end of that season results in Test cricket in 2020 were encouraging; away series wins in South Africa and Sri Lanka bookended a home summer in which West Indies and Pakistan were also beaten.
However in 2021, as the challenges of the pandemic mounted, the team’s results nose-dived when they took on sides above them in the world rankings. It started with a 3-1 defeat in India and then a 1-0 loss at home against New Zealand, and in both series multi-format players were rested and rotated, albeit still permitted to fulfil their Indian Premier League commitments.
When India won at Lord’s and the Oval – a series left unresolved at 2-1 because of the postponement of the fifth Test – they had been the second touring team that season to completely outshine their hosts in terms of technical prowess and application with the bat. Not even the excellence of Root during a remarkable run of personal form could mask those clear issues.
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The Ashes, which followed a disappointing semi-final defeat for Eoin Morgan’s white-ball side in the T20 World Cup, proved the lowest point through flawed strategy and a batting lineup that failed to pass 300 once, ending with a lamentable 68 all out in Hobart from which recriminations were inevitable.
In the official statement confirming his departure, Giles said: “I’d like to thank everyone for the support they’ve given me, particularly all the staff and the players, as well as the board for giving me this opportunity.
“The past couple of years have been incredibly challenging and I’m proud of what we’ve been able to deliver in the toughest of circumstances. This has undoubtedly protected the future of the game in England and Wales. Despite these challenges, over the past three years we have become 50-over world champions, the top-ranked T20I side in the world, we remain fourth-ranked Test team and our under-19s have just reached the World Cup final for the first time in 24 years. I wish all our players and staff great success for the future.”
Harrison, a chief executive who would be under threat himself but for the lack of an ECB chair above him at present, said: “Off the back of a disappointing men’s Ashes this winter we must ensure we put in place the conditions across our game to enable our Test team to succeed.”
