Downton goes as Pietersen looms
domestic cricket in a warm- up match against Oxford MCCU on Sunday.
New ECB chief executive Tom Harrison has abolished Downton’s job description and will replace it with the slightly reworded ‘ director of England cricket’.
Quite what this renaming exercise really means is unclear, but it does suggest that Moores and national selector James Whitaker – who have consistently put out the line that there is no place for Pietersen, above, in the England team – are on even shakier ground.
But Harrison insisted the decision has no bearing on the immediate futures of Moores and Test captain Cook. “This decision is not on the fi eld, it’s about the management structure,” he said. “This is not a short- term fi x.”
Harrison also denied the decision had any bearing on the Pietersen situation. He said: “Today is about the future and where this organisation is going over four to fi ve years.”
Harrison was presented as the public face of Downton’s exit, but incoming ECB chairman Graves, who begins work next month, must surely have had a hand in proceedings.
Harrison said: “The new role we are putting in place will deliver an environment where world- class performance is at the heart of everything.”
Former England captain Michael Vaughan showed an immediate interest in the new job. Vaughan, captain of the England team when they regained the Ashes in 2005, said on Sky Sports: “I’m not going to give my phone number on here – but I think the ECB have got it.
“I’m always open to chat about trying to help English cricket.”
If it was quite a day off the pitch for English cricket, it was a day of chaos on it too, as the team in the West Indies faced the start of the second two- day game with St Kitts & Nevis.
England struck an agreement to add Jonathan Trott, Gary Ballance and Jonny Bairstow to the home team but that backfi red immediately when Trott fell for a duck.
Stuart Broad then suffered an injury scare when he hurt his left ankle but returned having received ice treatment.
Ballance fell for 17 as St Kitts, with not much help from their English guest players, struggled to 78- 4.