ASHES FLOPS SHOWN DOOR
Giles axed and Silverwood set to go
Ashley Giles became the first casualty of england’s Ashes humiliation last night when he was sacked and replaced by his predecessor sir Andrew strauss.
The ECB announced Giles was ‘standing down’ from his role as england’s managing director after a review led by strauss into the worst Australia tour in memory.
Now strauss will decide the futures of coach Chris silverwood and assistant Graham Thorpe, who are both expected to follow Giles out of the door in the next two days following an Ashes tour littered with errors, indiscipline and accusations of a drinking culture. Alec stewart is favourite to step in as interim coach.
The wording may suggest mutual consent but there is no question Giles has been sacked after three years in the role following a nightmare tour in which he was ultimately responsible for england’s 4-0 drubbing.
it was Giles who gave silverwood ultimate power when he made him supremo after the sacking of national selector ed smith and it was former england white-ball coach Giles who decided the coaching jobs should not again be split. Both were huge errors.
‘The last couple of years have been incredibly challenging and i’m proud of what we’ve been able to deliver in the toughest of circumstances,’ said Giles. ‘This has undoubtedly protected the future of the game. Despite these challenges, over the last three years, we have become 50-over world champions, the top-ranked T20 international side in the world, we remain the fourthranked Test team and our Under-19s have reached their World Cup final.
‘i wish all our players and staff great success for the future.’
That was a reference to the belief of Giles and silverwood that allowances should have been made for keeping the england show on the road during the Covid pandemic, when they have played far more cricket than any other country.
instead, the eCB board have accepted the recommendation of strauss in his role as chair of their influential cricket committee that they could not retain the status quo after the Ashes debacle.
strauss will now return on an interim basis to his old role — as managing director — from which he made such an impact before being forced to withdraw for family reasons after the death of his wife Ruth.
The former england captain will be ‘putting arrangements in place’ for the three-Test tour of the Caribbean next month, with england due to leave for Antigua on February 24.
he will need to decide if he picks the squad for the West indies along with silverwood or, far more likely, an interim england coach like surrey director of cricket stewart or ex-england coach Andy Flower.
Former england captain Nasser hussain told sky sports: ‘i think when you lose an Ashes series 4-0 and the way they have played in Test-match cricket over the last year or so, it was always going to be on the cards that there was going to be upheaval in the management, with the tour of the West indies imminent, and they had to make some decisions about people off the field.
‘They’re going to have to make some decisions more importantly on the on-field cricketers as well.
‘But once you lose 4-0 and the manner of those defeats as well, they were hardly in a session in that Ashes Test series and got a lot of key decisions wrong.’