Rob Key’s reign as England’s managing director of men’s cricket is beginning to take shape, with Ben Stokes poised to be named Test captain and applications open for coaching positions.
Stokes has widely been considered the only viable candidate to take over from Joe Root, whose five-year captaincy ended when he resigned earlier this month.
Key has held talks with Stokes and other senior players since his appointment 10 days ago, including this week. The all-rounder is thought to be keen on the job (when his friend Root was in post, he strongly distanced himself from it) and an appointment appears close.
Any appointment would need to be ratified by the ECB Board, which means an announcement is likely to be pushed into next week.
Stokes was Root’s vice-captain for much of his term, although James Anderson, Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali all did the job when he was unavailable. It appears unlikely that England will name an official vice-captain this time; the uncertainty over the best XI means standout candidates are thin on the ground.
Stokes’ appointment is expected before that of a head coach. With a full process required, applications opened this weekend for two positions: red ball head coach and white ball head coach. The deadline for applications is next Friday (May 6), with interviews taking place the following week.
It is hoped that England will have appointed a Test coach before the First Test against New Zealand at Lord’s on June 2, but it may be that an interim team take charge of that series, a situation akin to Trevor Bayliss’s arrival in 2015, when Paul Farbrace initially led the side.
It is still possible that England could have one head coach, if the right candidate emerges and is keen. But a split is strongly favoured across the governing body.
Paul Collingwood, who was interim head coach on last month’s tour of the Caribbean, remains favourite to lead the white-ball teams, but it will be interesting to see if big names in global coaching apply for what is an attractive gig that could be combined with franchise work. Eoin Morgan remains captain of both formats for now and generally sets the team’s direction.
The Test coach’s role will almost certainly be fulfilled by a face new to the setup arriving from overseas. The leading contenders are Simon Katich, the former Australia batter, Graham Ford, the former Ireland and Sri Lanka coach, and Gary Kirsten, who has coached India and his native South Africa.
Katich (Manchester Originals) and Kirsten (Welsh Fire) are already on the ECB payroll as coaches in the men’s Hundred, while Key knows Ford from his time at Kent and has previously praised him. Kirsten missed out to Chris Silverwood when the job was last available in 2019.
Others in contention are likely to come from Australia, with Jason Gillespie, Tom Moody and perhaps Greg Shipperd, who is highly regarded Down Under, all possible applicants.
The job application suggests that the red-and white-ball setups will have separate coaching teams and support staffs. The sheer volume of cricket England men have played in recent times has necessitated a move towards that, but it has not been formalised.
Along with head coach Silverwood and managing director Ashley Giles, batting coach Graham Thorpe lost his job after the Ashes, another position that needs to be filled.
It is also expected that Key will reinstate the role of national selector, which Giles made redundant when firing Ed Smith a year ago. Who would fill that role remains unclear.
Nottinghamshire’s Stuart Broad and Sussex’s Ollie Robinson are in line to make their first appearances of the county season tomorrow in a bid to prove their readiness for the New Zealand series.
