New managing director of the England and Wales Cricket Board Rob Key, who took over on April 18, is expected to split red-ball and white-ball coaching roles, with Graham Ford favourite for the Test coach position.
ECB’s search for the new head coach of the men’s Test team could end with Ford, reports ESPNcricinfo. The 61-year-old has good credentials, having done the coaching stints with Sri Lanka, Surrey and South Africa. In November, he brought an end to his four-year spell as the coach of the Irish national team.
The two worked alongside each other at Kent County Cricket Club. While Ford served as a director of cricket, Key led the side from 2006. Shedding light on his time with the South African at the County Championship club, ex-England batsman Key had written in his 2020 autobiography that he was a great coach to work with.
“We had a joint focus on taking the team forward. Fordy would do everything he could to make a player be the best they could; me included.
If you were out of nick, he’d throw at you in the nets until it got dark to try to get you back into form. Because of our shared attitude to betterment, we never really had a clash.”
Key is expected to appoint two separate head coaches for red-ball and white-ball teams. It is understood that Ford, who was disappointed with Ireland’s scarce Test fixtures, would be interested in the Test coach role with England. Ford has stayed in Ireland since his exit from the Ireland team and is currently coaching YMCA CC in Dublin.
Earlier, The Daily Mail had reported that Mahela Jayawardene and Ricky Ponting have ruled themselves out of contention. It is learnt that Ottis Gibson has committed his future to Yorkshire.
A few news outlets have linked Simon Katich with the Test role, while Tom Moody, Gary Kirsten and Paul Collingwood are among other contenders.
England’s next assignment will be the three-match Test series against New Zealand in June. They’re also slated to play three ODIs against New Zealand in between the second and third Test. England have used split squads for red-ball and white-ball formats for a while now. The next step would be to have split coaches for different formats.
