Managing director Rob Key and England & Wales Cricket Board chief executive Richard Gould will no doubt explain the influence that the new national selector will have when they face the media on Monday to detail the findings of their Ashes review.
Yet from the job spec posted online earlier this week, it seems the new role has been designed to further clip the wings of coach Brendon McCullum, who is already bruised having had to accept significant changes to the set-up to keep his job following last winter’s 4-1 hammering in Australia.
This includes a wider role for performance director Ed Barney and the implementation of more specialist coaches as well as agreeing to beefed-up warm-up schedules for overseas tours.
McCullum’s relationship with Test captain Ben Stokes also had to be repaired after both were critical of each other when giving their feedback in the post-Ashes review.
Amidst the fallout from the Ashes, one of the most damaging developments under the regime of Key and McCullum is the disconnection between the county game and England.
Surrey coach Gareth Batty alluded to it on Tuesday when talking about the pathway from domestic cricket to international level “misting over”. There is a widespread unrest among county directors of cricket, coaches and players that runs and wickets in the domestic game no longer have value in terms of selection for England.
The likes of spinner Shoaib Bashir and left-arm seamer Josh Hull were plucked from nowhere just because they have a profile that Key and McCullum like, while overlooking players who’ve torn it up at county level.
Brendon McCullum remains in charge of England (Photo: Getty)This is where the new selector will come in. Luke Wright, the previous “national selector”, left his role for family reasons after the Ashes.
But his importance was diminished compared to previous iterations of this role. Wright was more a glorified scout who reported back to Key and McCullum and occasionally did media interactions to explain selections that actually he wasn’t really responsible for.
Whoever takes on the new job – and the closing date is 17 April – looks like they will be given far more responsibility.
This appears to be a revival of the more substantial selection tsar that used to chair meetings when England squads were being picked.
Ed Smith, national selector from 2018 to 2021, was the last of these, with James Whitaker and Geoff Miller before him.
If the job description is anything to go by, it looks like a senior role that will prioritise added synergy between the county game and England.
Indeed, the fact whoever gets the job will be “representing the views of the selection panel to the media” means they will likely be asked to explain why certain players are picked – or not dropped – to the wider world rather than McCullum or Key.
They will also be “convening meetings and managing the selection of the England men’s squads across all formats”.
It looks like a job for a big personality and someone who will be a useful counterweight to the groupthink that has beset McCullum’s England regime in recent years.
Sir Alastair Cook would be a viable candidate (Photo: Getty)But who might be in the frame? Recent England players Steven Finn, Moeen Ali and Sir Alastair Cook would be viable candidates.
As might older former players like Darren Gough, Steve Harmison and Mark Butcher.
Figures from county cricket, such as Somerset coach Jason Kerr, might also be in the running.
Whoever gets the job, this seems like a flimsy compromise from the ECB. Rather than making the call to sack McCullum after the Ashes, they’ve decided to bring in someone from outside the current regime to help curb its worst excesses.
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