After overseeing a “shambles” during his time in charge of England’s limited-overs teams, the appointment of Ashley Giles as the ECB’s new director of cricket has left Wisden Cricket Monthly columnist Jonathan Liew uninspired.
This article was first published in issue 16 of Wisden Cricket Monthly. Subscribe here
It’s almost five years since Ashley Giles sat in a small, bare basement room in Chittagong and argued that his side had “warmed up pretty well”. England had just been bowled out for 88 by the Netherlands at the 2014 World T20, and if Giles thought drawing attention to their exemplary pre-match training regimen might serve as mitigation, then the incredulous reaction suggested he had rather miscalculated.
Giles was pilloried for his “warming-up” defence, but in fact it was another comment in the same interview that was more revealing. Instead, it was when he offered a sincere apology to “all the stakeholders of English cricket”. Even though his days as an ECB employee were numbered, Giles stayed faithful to the last. Yes, you found yourself nodding: this guy gets it. He’ll be back.
Now, with the international game entering another period of flux, this is the visionary to whom England have turned to navigate the choppy waters ahead. Perhaps Giles is exactly the sort of administrator the ECB were looking for: an overseer, a consolidator, a middle manager, a handshaker, a whiteboards and Powerpoint and stakeholder meetings sort of guy. A safe pair of hands to keep the show on the road while they get the Hundred off the ground.
Naturally, you still wish him well. He’s older and wiser these days, by all accounts: the tracksuit gone, a Masters degree sitting proudly in its frame, the mind refreshed by four years in county cricket. Moreover, he’s a decent, intelligent man, and as he spoke for the first time in his new position it was hard not to be struck by his simple passion, the restless drive of a man who has learned from the past and wants to put things right. You might, in other words, say that he warmed up pretty well.
