ECB keeping top job under cover
THE ECB are not living up to their promise of fresh transparency under a new regime by keeping secret the job description for the director of England cricket.
The confidential details were sent by email to potential candidates for the post, front-runners for which are former England captains Andrew Strauss, Michael Vaughan and Alec Stewart.
But the work parameters will not appear on the ECB website or that of headhunters Sports Recruitment International, as would be the normal procedure.
It is understood the ECB, who say there will be a proper recruitment procedure, don’t want any publicity about the job specification. It might well be altered in various ways during the interview process so their chosen man is happy with the scope of his responsibilities.
It is not expected that the new appointment will have to go to every England game. That will please head coach Peter Moores, who talked of the danger of having too many voices in the dressing room after the Antigua Test.
But the cricket director will have the main say over coach and captain and set the overall playing strategy. SPORTS psychiatrist Steve Peters, who is credited with having helped Jonathan Trott recover from situational anxieties well enough for him to return to the Test arena, talked briefly this week about how he is aiding the England batsman. Peters, before giving a lecture on his role as undergraduate dean of the University of Sheffield medical school, said he wasn’t equipped to give guidance on the technical batting problems that led to Trott’s two failures in Antigua. But he concentrates on ensuring, through Skype sessions, that Trott is in the best state of mind to succeed while being able to put any cricket setback into proper perspective. CHELSEA manager Jose Mourinho appears to have enjoyed yet another big payday by fronting a Jaguar promotion of their new car supply deal for the Wimbledon Championships. Mourinho (right), who was shown around the All England Club by chairman-in-waiting and fellow Jaguar ambassador Tim Henman, is a tennis fan who goes to the World Tour finals at the O2 and counts Rafa Nadal as a friend, even inviting him to Chelsea matches. IT has emerged that Keith Pelley, the Canadian media mogul chosen as chief executive of golf’s European Tour, was not the only non-European in the running. So was the second choice, and there was also an American on the short-list. The message seems to have been that the Tour didn’t want to antagonise the rest of Europe by appointing another Brit following the long, successful reigns of Ken Schofield and George O’Grady. However, Pelley, despite his lack of golf knowledge, is seen as a good appointment, mainly because of his TV rights acumen.