Former Kent captain turned broadcaster, who has laid down his microphone and put his head on the block as director of men’s cricket, is not to be underestimatedIn between England’s ruinous Ashes campaign and the largely dismal epilogue in the Caribbean last month, a panel of Rob Key, Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain recorded a podcast for Sky in which they analysed the Test team’s myriad problems and discussed how they would change things.Key, though supposedly steering the debate as host, was pressed for his views. After detailed responses that have been widely reported over the past few days and which included his belief that player power needs addressing, Atherton joked that the only solution was to take charge of...
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...
A nice person and an all-time great batsman but after 64 Tests it is still hard to know what a Joe Root side is supposed to look likeThere is a terrifying moment in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner where the crew of the mariner’s ship, lost at sea under a merciless sun, are visited by a mind-blowing vision: a ghost galleon containing only the figure of Death and a sad, pale woman.Alone on their putrid deck, Death and the sad, pale woman – who to be fair, probably expected something more along the lines of cabaret and a buffet – play an arbitrary game of dice for the lives of the (already dying) crew. Continue reading...
Captain’s brave decision to step down exacerbates an already worrying leadership vacuum in men’s cricketThere are seven weeks to go until the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s and English cricket is without a permanent chair, a managing director of men’s cricket, a head coach, a selector and now a captain. Things may start to move quickly on the managing director front in the coming days, but it is still a remarkable leadership vacuum.Joe Root’s decision to step down on Good Friday was much like Alastair Cook’s five years ago; a race having been run and the eventual realisation that a fresh voice was required in the dressing room. Similarly, the news was broken via official channels despite both...