The new managing director of cricket impressed at Sky but his lack of experience is a concern for an ECB lacking leadershipRob Key is someone I have known for a very, very, long time. He’s been involved in cricket through his career; as a player, as a captain, and then with Sky, where he has become a prominent voice, somewhat surprisingly. I say surprisingly because they tend to hire former England captains for their main punditry and analysis roles, so Rob was a little bit of an outlier in that sense. But he has grown into the role very well and often comes up with thought-provoking conversations. Continue reading...
ECB shouldn’t be afraid of appointing a short-term leader who can steer the side through a challenging summerOn Friday, Joe Root resigned as England captain and this was one of the better recent days for the England and Wales Cricket Board. It was, at least, one clarification in a fog of uncertainty. There is no chairman at the ECB, no cricket director (though the expectation is that Rob Key will be appointed after the Easter bank holiday), no coach and now no Test captain. Not much room for complacency here. England have not been so rudderless since 1988, the summer of four Test captains.The assumption is that Root jumped rather than being pushed since there is no one around at...
Two England greats may have been exiled, but how can people care when their careers have taken place behind paywalls?The Ashes aftershocks have rumbled on over the past week, and on Tuesday peaked with the news that neither Jimmy Anderson nor Stuart Broad will feature when the so-called “red-ball reset” begins in the Caribbean next month.Both are known to be hurt to miss out and a touch miffed at being told in a couple of short, sharp phone calls rather than in person. Broad was literally raging against the machine in his final outing – picking a fight with a robot camera that kept moving on the boundary’s edge in Hobart and his latest newspaper column continues the theme. Continue...
The scandal of ECB executives sharing a £2.1m windfall shows why shuffling England’s backroom staff is not enough“Terrific, Mr Mayor. We found the shark!” It has been hard to find any great sense of resolution in the departure this week, by mutually lawyered-up consent, of the head coach, the batting coach and the “managing director” of the England men’s cricket team.In fairness Chris Silverwood never seemed that convinced himself, carrying out his public duties with the fearful, haunted look of a man who only left the house to fetch a pint of milk but finds himself 11 hours later still in his pyjamas, 18 Jägerbombs deep, a tattoo of monkey on his neck, and being asked now to give the...
Cricket’s executives are unrepresentative of the sport and hopelessly ill-equipped to tackle the problems it facesAnd it all started so well. The England and Wales Cricket Board’s chief executive, Tom Harrison, began his appearance in front of the DCMS select committee with earnest thanks, to the MPs for the opportunity, and to Azeem Rafiq for his testimony, then eased into a well-rehearsed spiel about everything the ECB has been doing.He spoke about Inspiring Generations, the South-Asian Action Plan, the transformed women and girls pathway, his 12-point plan, £25m of new investment, how he had matched funding with broadcast partners, built a burgeoning link with Kick It Out, launched a new anti-discrimination unit, a dressing-room culture review, a game-wide census, and...