English cricket requires ‘radical’ changes – Andrew Strauss

Strauss, who also announced he will be spending time away from his role to support his wife during her treatment for cancer, has finished a review into England’s dire Test form over the past few winters and outlined a strategy for improvement.

England have failed to win any of their past 13 Test fixtures away from home and Strauss admits the side “hasn’t been good enough”, and that team selection could be shaken up in these situations.

Strauss on identifying raw talent: “We have to identify players in and around the county game who can offer something different away from home. We have to identify players who have a point of difference and work with them to help them develop. They won’t necessarily be ready to play for England, but if we can identify guys who can bowl 90 mph, guys with unique talent as a spin bowler, left-arm seamers and bowlers with reverse-swing skills and then get our lead coaches working with them, getting together with their counties to put in place a joint program.”

Strauss on England’s hectic schedule: “The schedules are what they are. So our job is to manage the workload of our players. Pretty much all our all-format players had some time off over the winter and most of our staff did, as well. And, if you have specialisation between red- and white-ball cricket, it gives you more flexibility to do that.”

Strauss on the County Championship divide: “There’s no doubt that there are certain unintended consequences that come with two divisions. So the challenge for the group looking at the domestic structure is to work out the positives and negatives and which outweighs the other. We should always be open-minded about how we can make the domestic structure better and my focus is how we can develop young England players and make sure they get an opportunity to play. And the skills at domestic level have to match the skills at international level. If they’re two different games then that’s a problem for us.”