England must focus on home front
Rob Key insists England must do more to produce homegrown coaches as he ponders a return to overseas leadership of the national side.
Key, who took over this month as managing director of men’s cricket and has already appointed Ben Stokes as Test captain, is looking for two new head coaches after opting to split the role.
Former England one-day skipper Paul Collingwood, who held the post on an interim basis on the recent West Indies tour, is a potential white-ball candidate but the bulk of those linked with the vacancies would be imports.
South African pair Gary Kirsten and Graham Ford have been touted, Simon Katich appears the most likely of a lengthier Australian list, while Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka) and Stephen Fleming (New Zealand) boast strong claims.
For a country with 18 firstclass counties, the feeling remains that the domestic field should be more competitive but since the year 2000 England’s most successful moments have been overseen by the likes of Duncan Fletcher, Andy Flower and Trevor Bayliss.
“Let’s be honest, we are at this point where we have two coaching jobs and the majority of the names coming at you will be overseas coaches. That can’t be right,” said Key.
“That is a fault of the system and we need to be sorting this out. Whenever I read (the press) you are always tipping overseas coaches and that is the fault of us at the ECB.
“You can’t be telling me that there are not good English coaches. We have this whole system in place and we have to make it an appealing job and an appealing process. There are so many people in our game that have great views and we want them in coaching. It can’t always be someone else’s fault. What do we need to do?
“How do you become a good coach if you don’t get the opportunity?
“How many English coaches have we had of the national side in 30 years? Two or three? We have to sort that out. We have to be doing something about it otherwise what is the point?”