What we can expect from Rob Key if he becomes England’s managing director of cricket

The former England batter and Kent captain has become a popular member of the Sky Cricket commentary team in recent times and in his role as a pundit, has shared his opinions on a range of issues that will likely be in the new managing director’s in-tray.

In a pair of conversations with Sky Sports before the Tests series in West Indies, Key touched upon various topics, including a possible split coaching system going forward, the futures of James Anderson and Stuart Broad and the identity of England’s Test captain later this year.

Key on splitting the coaching job

“Not through his own doing really, he [Chris Silverwood] was just given an impossible task in what he did. I mean, what sort of sums it up was how wrong that decision was to make him in charge of everything, all formats, all of English cricket, in terms of coaching all the men’s teams, is what we will probably, in this new era go for a split-coaching set-up. So we’ll have one coach of white-ball cricket, another coach for Test match cricket, and we’ll probably have some form of selection panel back, so that’s the complete opposite of what Chris Silverwood was asked to do.

“He got given more power than pretty much any other English coach in my time. I know Ray Illingworth, I think, back a long time ago, had a lot of power and with the cricket they had in that year, in that last year, with Covid all of that, that was the decision that has cost both Giles and Silverwood so far.”

Key on Tom Harrison

“I’m not entirely sure on what Tom Harrison has to do with the actual performance of the England cricket team. That is what I thought Ashley Giles’s job was for and then he reports in to Tom Harrison who does the business side as much as anything else in English cricket. And the playing performance, Tom Harrison isn’t in that dressing room, Tom Harrison isn’t the man in there telling them how they should play, what they should do at the toss at Brisbane, what team they should pick all, those types of things. Those are cricketing decisions.

“Tom Harrison didn’t tell Ashley Giles to get rid of the selectors and make Chris Silverwood in charge. I doubt Tom Harrison actually told Ashley Giles to make Chris Silverwood the head coach in the first place when Joe Root probably needed someone else with more experience to help him make those decisions along the way, so I don’t see how that is under Tom Harrison’s remit. His job is basically to employ Ashley Giles and make sure he’s got the right man to make those decisions.”

Key on England’s next head coach

“Who the ideal person is is probably people who don’t want to do the job for love nor money people, like Ricky Ponting. You know you talk about international experience, the class that he is how someone like Joe Root would be able to feed off him but he’s not going to do the job.

“Then you’ve got Stephen Fleming, who’s the coach of the Chennai Super Kings who was a fantastic captain for his country for years and has been a brilliant coach but again he’s not going to want to do it. Someone like Mahela Jayawardene would be perfect if you’re looking for someone overseas. If you’re looking for someone from England, the name that’s been mentioned is Alec Stewart, but I think, Alec Stewart would probably only want to do it in the interim. And if he did, I think he would be good with that because what this team needs is someone who when they want to come up with selections, when they want to come up with decisions at the toss, whatever else, is the way we want to play our cricket, the mentality of the team, someone like Alec Stewart would be perfect for that because he was a very good player obviously, which isn’t everything but he’s got that experience. He’s got that nous.

Key on Gary Kirsten’s suitability to the head coach role

“I think he probably would [be a decent option for the job]. You know, he was obviously a decent player and he’s got a lot of international cricket experience, so he’s used to that scrutiny and he coached India to No.1 in the world with MS Dhoni. What you have to work out with these people at times is who was the real driver of that success that India had. Was it MS Dhoni, was it Gray Kirsten? Did Gary Kirsten just facilitate MS Dhoni and everything that was great about MS Dhoni and all the decisions? That’s what you have to find out.”

Key on who should captain England in Tests

“I’m looking down at that management group and those guys who have lost their jobs and I would argue – and I don’t know this for a fact – I would say a lot of those decisions that have been criticised for a long time have all been made, primarily, by Joe Root the captain. Chris Silverwood himself would have just been one of those coaches, like we have nowadays, that says, ‘What do you want, Joe?’, Joe says, ‘I want this’ and Chris Silverwood then does it. So how has Joe Root managed to survive and everyone else has lost their job? When probably, all of those guys have been less bad decisions than the captain?

“I personally think Joe Root has a lot to do as a captain. The problem with that is it’s not obvious who can come in. The best captain in that entire setup or the person who’s the most likely candidate or would be the best captain, in my opinion, it’s only my opinion, is Jos Buttler but the problem with that is that he doesn’t get in the team at the moment. But you’re talking about purely – forget about playing – talking about captaincy credentials, Jos Buttler is that, hence why Eoin Morgan goes to him all the way through the last four years. Eoin Morgan has gone to him, and he has said “You know Jos Buttler is the one I turn to, he’s got the best cricket brain. In that, he looks like he’s at the end of his tether with Test cricket so that’s not an option. I think Ben Stokes would be a better captain than Joe Root at the moment but he’s had his own issues.”

Key on the England’s ‘negative mentality’

“My biggest criticism of England over the last two years is their mentality – it’s so negative. And that’s the coaches and I hold Joe Root at the top of the tree for that. What I mean by that…someone like Ollie Pope, all these batsmen in this country, they talk about batting from such a negative point of view and I understand that because they’ve been beaten up by this ball that’s moving around but they talk about I’m gonna bat on off stump because I’m worried about the ball coming back in and hitting me lbw, ‘Well I’m gonna bat here because I’m worried about this ball happening’ and everything is set out from a negative point of view.

“Whereas actually, I don’t mind where you stand as long as what you’re doing is – is that the best place for you to be to score runs? You know that’s what comes from coaches, that’s what comes from the environment that’s what comes from the captain…’I’m going to stand here because if Mitchell Starc will start bowling on my pads I’m going to clip him’ and, ‘I’m going to stand a bit leg side because it brings in my cut shot’. It’s the same thing with the bowlers – ‘I’m not going to bowl this line and length because it’s going to stop them from scoring runs,’ ‘I’m going to do it because this is the best way to get them out’ and this mentality we have in English cricket, at the moment, has to change.

“It is so negative and that comes from Root, that comes from Silverwood. Meetings where they’re just showing people you should have left that. Batsman going into bat and just saying ‘Don’t play this shot, don’t do that.’ You can be hard on people without having this constant negative outlook on everything and that’s what they’ve got to change in the Test team.”

Key on the red-ball reset and moving on from Broaderson

“I agree with Strauss you then do have to reset. 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? Under no circumstance are Broad and Anderson not the best bowlers, not the best people as well.

“If this is any of this decision is about them being hard to manage, that is the biggest load of rubbish I think you can have. That is that that is more of a black mark on Joe Root’s captaincy than it is on Broad and Anderson. If they can’t bowl the right length after all those Test matches have a look at yourself Joe. Don’t worry about them and nailing them in the media for all of that. That’s a load of rubbish.”