Former England captain Andrew Strauss looks set to take over as England’s new Director of Cricket.
Paul Downton was sacked as Managing Director last month, with the ECB deciding his replacement will have a new and more embracing title.
In the interim Strauss, Michael Vaughan, and Alec Stewart have come to the fore as potential replacements for Downton.
Vaughan has just withdrawn, leaving the 38-year-old Strauss as the odds-on favourite to win the job, especially after withdrawing from the Sky television commentary team for tonight’s England-Ireland ODI in Dublin.
Strauss would be perfect for the job.
A two-time winner of the Ashes while in charge of England – and this is an Ashes season – he’s very much a part of the cricket establishment, and most unlikely to rattle any cages at Lords, or beyond.
He was private school educated after migrating from South Africa, known in England as public school, very much a big tick of the boxes to the establishment.
Strauss’ appointment will immediately set up some very interesting decisions.
First up, whether or not to sack England’s coach Peter Moores after the team just lost a match in the West Indies, squaring the series. And the coach-in-waiting is former Australian fast bowler Jason Gillespie, a very successful coach at Yorkshire.
But can he be as successful in an Ashes series?
There are many who are worried Strauss’ close friendship with his former opening partner Alastair Cook would be awkward if Cook has a run of outs, having already been dropped from the ODI side.
In a successful six-year combination from 2006 to 2012 they were the third highest-scoring partnership in history behind West Indians Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, and the other double leftie Australian combination of Matt Hayden and Justin Langer.
For the record:
Greenidge-Haynes’ 6482 runs at 47.31 with 16 century stands and 26 half centuries.
Hayden-Langer’s 5655 runs at 51.88 with 14 century and 24 half-century stands.
And Strauss-Cook’s 4711 at 40.96 with 12 century and 18 half-century stands.
But the most telling decision would be how Strauss treats the possibility of Kevin Pietersen’s return to Test cricket.
If Pietersen gets among the country runs for Surrey, ECB chairman Colin Graves has publicly said Pietersen could get a recall.
That’s a start, providing Strauss agrees. And we won’t know how Strauss will react until he sits in the Director of Cricket chair.
Pietersen hasn’t played a Test since the Ashes at the SCG in January last year as the Australians wrapped up the series 5-0.
Pietersen will be 35 by the time the Ashes start, but there’s no doubt an in-form Pietersen would do wonders for England’s sagging morale.
A Pietersen return would also be dependent on how Cook as captain reacts, and that too has a big question mark.
Nothing has stopped Pietersen throwing his two-cent’s worth into the ring this week.
“If he gets the job, Andrew must restore English cricket to its public after a treacherous 15 months”.
One would have thought silence would be golden at this stage, but Pietersen will never die wondering.
It looms as the most interesting of northern summers, both politically and player wise.
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