Rob Key starts his tenure as the ECB’s managing director of men’s cricket with a power vacuum beneath him and the Test side in disarray. Here are six questions facing the former Kent and England batter as he assumes his new role.
What to do with the coaching structure?
In his capacity as a pundit for Sky Cricket, Key has outlined his thoughts on a number of the many pressing issues facing English cricket in recent months. Speaking in February prior to England’s tour of West Indies, Key expressed his preference for the coaching job to be split into two, with one coach charged with leading the Test side and another responsible for the fortunes of the white-ball sides.
While England’s previous experience of splitting the head coach role didn’t go to plan – Ashley Giles performed the role of white-ball head coach without much success in the early 2010s – it is generally viewed that overseeing all three formats is too demanding an ask for one person given the current touring schedule. And that’s all before actually identifying who the new coach, or coaches, are, with the likes of Justin Langer and Gary Kirsten in the frame.
How to go about selection?
One of Giles’ most controversial calls during his time as managing director was his decision to abolish the role of national selector, handing ultimate responsibility for the selection of squads to the head coach. Key has previously hinted that giving that much responsibility to one person was a mistake.
It may be that a temporary selection structure is required given the relative lack of time until the first Test of the summer.
Who gets the Test captaincy?
None of the candidates to replace Root are close to ideal. Stokes has recently returned from a prolonged break from the game to prioritise his mental health and none of the other options are guaranteed a spot in the team. In February, Key argued that Jos Buttler would be “the best captain” out of all of England’s options but acknowledged that he currently does not get into England’s first choice XI. Stokes, however, is the clear favourite.
Is a return for Broaderson on the cards?
Key offered a nuanced view to the discarding of Stuart Broad and James Anderson ahead of England’s tour of the Caribbean. He argued that while it would have been a mistake to leave them out on account of how they might have been to manage, it was understandable to look to the future after the Ashes disaster in Australia. Key said: “I like the way that Strauss thinks from the point of view of, ‘How are we going to become the best team in the world?’ And by the way, that is not going to happen for some time. We are miles away from Australia, India. So then you have to work out who are the best that you’re going to do, who are the characters, who are the players you’re going to invest in for that?”
Will he change the county structure?
Since the introduction of The Hundred last summer, the domestic schedule is even more condensed than it was before. Key, a supporter of The Hundred, will have decisions to make regarding the make-up of a standard domestic summer. How many first-class matches should each county play per season? When should these matches take place? Should the One Day Cup still be played in the shadow of The Hundred? These are questions that Key will need to answer in the months to come.
Key has also been especially vocal about the quality of county pitches in recent times and how they are, with a few exceptions, not conducive to producing Test quality red-ball cricketers. Expect Key to tackle the perceived problem of pitch quality head on.
How to phase out the end of the Morgan era?
While the more pressing concerns for Key surround the first-class and Test games, he will also be the man in charge of the country’s white-ball programme. Eoin Morgan is by some distance England’s greatest ever white-ball leader but all good things must come to an end. It could be argued that so great is his influence on how limited overs cricket is played in this country that a change of leader might not have as much of an impact on the fortunes of the senior side as previously feared. Morgan turns 36 later this year and endured a tough year with the bat in 2021, averaging less than 18 at a strike rate of less than 120 across 46 T20 matches last year. Buttler is Morgan’s natural successor but moving on from someone who has had such a profound effect on English cricket might not be straightforward.
