Broad: Tell me if I have a Test future
Snubbed star to hold crisis talks as soon as new regime is in place
StuARt Broad will seek talks with England’s new managing director and coach this summer before deciding if he has a future in test cricket.
Broad yesterday broke his silence on the controversial decision by interim managing director Sir Andrew Strauss to drop both him and Jimmy Anderson from England’s tour of the West Indies, in a passionate column in the Mail on Sunday.
Now, one of England’s greatest fast bowlers will delay any decision on whether he will try to add to his 152 test caps and 537 wickets until Strauss appoints a new person for his own role and a new full-time test coach to replace the sacked Chris Silverwood.
there was anger from Broad at the prospect of his test career being over at 35.
‘No, I can’t pretend I am as good as gold because I am not,’ he said. ‘It would be wrong to act like everything is OK.
‘I could take being dropped if I had let my standards slip, but facing up to being overlooked when they haven’t is another thing altogether.
‘I am struggling to put things into context. It’s hard to do so when all you’ve had is a five-minute phone call and nothing else.’
Broad said the reason he was given for the decision by the selection panel, led by Strauss and including interim coach Paul Collingwood and head scout James taylor, was England’s desire to improve their away form, starting with a three-test series in the Caribbean that begins on March 8 in Antigua.
‘Do I believe I warrant a place in England’s best team in Antigua? Of course I do,’ wrote Broad. ‘that is why it is so difficult to comprehend.
‘If I was averaging 100 with the ball recently and had a terrible record in the Caribbean then, OK, try someone else. But I’ve bowled well there in the past and West Indies are a team I’ve had good success against.’
Broad conceded that his chances of playing for England this summer — against New Zealand, South Africa and India — and beyond remain in the balance.
‘I am in the top three bowlers in the country and whether I play — or indeed Jimmy plays — when we resume international cricket in June will be a call for new eyes to decide,’ he said.
‘As soon as the new regime is announced it will be important for me to get into a room with them and ask what they see the future looking like. their opinions are now everything to me.
‘What I don’t want to do is pick up a cricket ball for a couple of weeks. I will do so when I have decided whether to jump at the latest challenge set for me.’
Broad’s reaction is another blow to the crisis-hit ECB and Strauss, who led a mass clearout after the Ashes debacle, with managing director Ashley Giles, Silverwood and his assistant Graham thorpe all paying with their jobs.
Eight players selected to tour Australia were dropped for the test squad to face West Indies.
Now it remains to be seen whether captain Joe Root, who ‘celebrated’ five years in the job over the weekend, is in agreement with the decisions and the squad he has been given for what is meant to be a re-set of England’s red ball cricket.