STOKES SKIPPER AS KEY MAKES HIS FIRST MOVE
» HIS APPOINTMENT NEEDS ONLY FINAL RATIFICATION
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 a host of coaching positions.
Stokes has widely been considered the only viable candidate to take over from Joe Root, whose five-year reign ended when he resigned this month.
Key has held talks with Stokes and other senior players since his appointment 10 days ago. The all-rounder is thought to be keen on the job 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, uncertainty over the best XI meaning standout candidates are thin on the ground.
Stokes’s 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 the equivalent for white-ball cricket. The deadline for applications is next Friday, with interviews taking place the following week.
It is hoped that England will have appointed a red-ball 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 led the side.
It is still possible that England have one head coach if the right candidate emerged and is keen, but a split is strongly favoured by the ECB.
Paul Collingwood, who was interim head coach on the recent 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 white-ball captain for now and generally sets the team’s direction.
The Test coach’s role will almost certainly be a face new to the set-up.
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 in the men’s Hundred, while Key knows Ford from his time at Kent. 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 Greg Shipperd all possible applicants.
The job application suggests that the red- and white-ball set-ups 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 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 last year.
Meanwhile, Stuart Broad and Ollie Robinson are in line to make their first appearances of the county season tomorrow, for Notts and Sussex respectively, in a bid to prove their readiness for the New Zealand series.