England will adopt a split coaching structure for the first time in eight years after the ECB publicly advertised for two new head coaches, one for their Test squad and the other for white-ball cricket.
Since Rob Key’s appointment as managing director of men’s cricket, the decision to split the coaching role in two has been widely anticipated, and it has now been officially confirmed, with candidates being invited to apply for their desired role by May 6 and first-round interviews set for May 9 and 10.
On June 2, England will play New Zealand in their second Test, while their next limited-overs series will begin on June 17 in the Netherlands.
From 2012 to 2014, Andy Flower (Tests) and Ashley Giles (ODIs and T20Is) divided the role and had a tense relationship, with England’s finest players often rested from limited-overs series, but the level of expectation for England’s white-ball sides is substantially higher currently.
Due to the rigours of the schedule, Chris Silverwood, who was fired after the Ashes defeat in Australia, missed many limited-overs series.
The schedule for the next 12 months is as demanding: six consecutive England trips are set for the winter of 2021-22, while the Netherlands ODI series takes place in June between the second and third Tests against New Zealand, necessitating separate squads.
Graham Ford, who worked closely with Key at Kent from 2005 to 2009, has emerged as a possibility for the Test post, according to ESPNcricinfo. Gary Kirsten, Paul Collingwood, Simon Katich, and Tom Moody have also been suggested as possible candidates.
Collingwood was in charge of England’s T20I and Test tours to the Caribbean on an interim basis earlier this year, but both series were lost, and his proximity to the players as an assistant coach could work against him given England’s poor run of results.
According to the job descriptions, the ideal applicants for the positions are “experienced strategists with clear and ambitious ideas for how they will develop and build success for English cricket moving forward” who can “produce a winning culture and world-leading teams.”
Key will be formally introduced to the media at Lord’s on Thursday, just over a week after starting his new job, and is expected to lay out his vision for reviving England’s teams after a disappointing winter in which the Test team went winless in eight games and the T20I side was beaten in the World Cup semi-finals in the UAE.
Key was critical of his predecessor Giles’ decision to make the role of national selector superfluous and assign those responsibilities to Silverwood while working as a pundit for Sky Sports.
He has yet to specify whether he will appoint a single selector, but each new head coach will play “a central role in picking the team for their respective format with a national selection panel,” according to the advertisement for the coaching positions.
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