Rob Key advised England should have just one head coach for both red and white-ball teams

04/20/2022

Rob Key has a lot of big decisions ahead

Mark Butcher suggests England’s new managing director of cricket Rob Key should appoint one head coach across all forms of international cricket and reinstate the role of national selector.

Key, a former member of the England Test match and One Day International sides, was appointed as Ashley Giles’ successor on Sunday.

The role of national selector was abolished last year, with Ed Smith leaving the England and Wales Cricket Board. Following Smith’s departure, then-head coach Chris Silverwood, who was sacked after the 4-0 Ashes thrashing this winter, took on the responsibilities.

Speaking to Sky Sports News, Butcher suggested Smith could return to his former role and raised concerns over having separate coaches for both red and white-ball teams.

The former England and Surrey batter said: “I don’t necessarily subscribe to the view that the coaching roles should be split. I still think you should have one man in charge.

“I don’t have a preferred candidate but I think if you have the right team – director of cricket, good and reliable, and perhaps someone who has been in the job before, such as Ed Smith, as chairman of selectors on the outside – then the captain is able to go out there and make the team his own.

“The coach should be a facilitator and bring out the best in the players he has, allowing the captain to run the ship. The captain, unlike in football, is the most important person and his decisions stick.”

One of Key’s first jobs will be to appoint a successor to Joe Root (Jason O’Brien/PA)

Butcher also said Ben Stokes is the only suitable candidate to replace Joe Root as Test captain, after Root stepped down from the role following the team’s recent struggles in the Ashes and on tour in the Caribbean.

The Sky Sports analyst said: “In other times I would say don’t give Ben Stokes the captaincy, he is too important as a player and a talisman. He leads by example by dint of his performances on the field and doesn’t need to be captain for people to follow him.

“However, only himself and Root are 100 per cent guaranteed picks so he is perhaps the only person who can be given the job.

“If Stokes wants to take on the role, that’s the end of the conversation and I think it is made easier by the fact that Root has stepped down rather than been fired. I think Stokes would have found it difficult to step into the role under those circumstances out of loyalty to his pal but in these circumstances I think the way is clear.”

Butcher, who scored eight sets centuries, remained confident on the appointment of Key.

“I have every faith that he will go in there with the remit to shake things up. He is certainly not an inside appointment… he comes fresh from a job where he had to give an opinion on things,” Butcher added.

“He has a lot of fresh ideas and is not afraid to canvas opinion, either – or upset people. He is always keen to fight his corner. He won’t fluff any big issues and, let’s face it, there are lots of them.

“Also, because he is an outsider not versed in management speak, he also has a rather healthy line in cynicism which can be handy when dealing with people who talk in rhymes and riddles.

“He knows the game inside out and has an enormous amount of respect from good judges, both those still playing the game and those on the outside.

Rob Key advised England should have just one head coach for both red and white-ball teams

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