This is no time for the old boys’ network. With English cricket at a crucial juncture, the kind of cosy appointment that has become disturbingly commonplace under the current regime must be avoided.
In identifying a new national selector, the ECB’s director of men’s cricket, Rob Key, should be focused on someone who will challenge the status quo, not simply fall into line. And so the successor to Luke Wright, who quit the role for family reasons at the end of the Ashes, should not come from the social circle of the England coach Brendon McCullum or have shared a commentary box with Key.
Which makes the optics of appointing either Steven Finn or Nick Knight, two applicants through to the latter stages, questionable.
Instead, they should be looking at senior figures detached from the current set-up with an expertise in the field. Mick Newell, responsible for putting multiple title-winning teams together at county champions Nottinghamshire, would be an excellent choice and has along with two other candidates, James Whitaker and Angus Fraser, been involved in England selection panels previously.
Yes, the likes of Finn and Knight tick the box of international experience that the ECB are looking for, but neither come across as someone whose presence will develop the kind of creative tension arguably now required within an England hierarchy that remains otherwise unchanged despite a 4-1 drubbing in Australia.
Finn, 37, made 126 international appearances as a multi-format fast bowler and is relatively fresh out of the game, having called time three years ago on a career that saw him play under McCullum’s captaincy at Middlesex. Both men are close to 2019 World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan.
Steven Finn is in the running to become England’s new national selector but it would be an appointment straight out of the old boys’ network
Equally, Nick Knight (left) has often shared a commentary box with England chief Rob Key
Since injury curtailed his time at Sussex, he has become a regular face and voice as a broadcaster with TNT Sports and the BBC, and colleagues speak highly of his eye for technical detail.
Knight, who worked with Key at Sky Sports, is another centurion when it comes to England caps and at 56 is an even more seasoned observer of players, remaining close to the county game through two decades of work behind the microphone.
But their existing relationships would only fuel accusations of jobs for the boys, adding to a recent history of recruitment that has caused consternation around the game. Not least when individuals with international coaching experience were told they had been pipped by the ‘outstanding candidate’ in Andrew Flintoff, a man short on qualifications but strong on connections, for the England Lions role. Or when England worked around McCullum’s fellow Kiwi Tim Southee’s playing commitments in constructing their Ashes backroom staff last winter.
The post-Ashes review has forced some changes in this regard, with Carl Hopkinson and Richard Dawson, both dispensed with by McCullum when he took over England’s white-ball teams 18 months ago, returning to the fold. Fielding coach Hopkinson was on the ground for the Twenty20 World Cup in India and Dawson has been welcomed back as one quarter of the new county insight group that will sit above the scouting network and feed back to Key and other senior figures up to four times annually.
Neither Finn nor Knight have coaching or director of cricket experience – a layer within the game that deals with picking players.
Of those with broadcasting backgrounds among a shortlist whittled down from around 80, Darren Gough has all the requisite characteristics, having been a director of cricket and board member at Yorkshire, and put together teams as head coach of Lahore Qalandars in the Pakistan Super League.
And the job spec should demand the kind of straight-talking for which Gough and Steve Harmison have been renowned on talkSPORT.
Harmison’s criticism of England’s treatment of Mark Wood’s injury rehab, straining a previously strong bond with Key, precludes him from applying for a third time. Of his most recent application, four years ago, he said: ‘Rob was looking for somebody who probably wasn’t going to challenge them.’
Mick Newell, the director of cricket at Nottinghamshire, would be an ideal choice
Former England bowler Steve Harmison has ruled himself out, saying that in the past all the England bigwigs wanted around them were ‘yes men’
Right now, though, a little over a year away from Australia arriving to defend the urn, such challenge is required to reconnect selection to county performances. Newell, 61, – whose lack of international playing experience should not be held against him – arguably best fits the profile required to deliver it.
Someone who would be unafraid to act as a critical friend in meetings, offer robust counter opinion and whose reputation would carry the authority of veto on 50-50 calls should a return to a more traditional model of selection be adopted.
Talk of a significant hike in pay from the previous level of £100,000 suggests it might be, but the incumbent is unlikely to be in place before the first squad is picked this summer. That is likely to take place around May 20-22, with England’s players meeting at Loughborough on May 24 for a week-long camp preparing them for the Test series against New Zealand next month.
