Right after English culling post the Ashes shake up which saw back to back sacking of Chris Silverwood, Graham Thorpe and Ashley Giles, former England skipper Paul Collingwood will be travelling with Root and Co. as their interim coach for the West Indies tour next month. Although, ECB is still making rounds in search of next coach after the Ashes debacle which might see Chris Silverwood axed from his position. The side play three Tests in March against West Indies between March 8-28.
English side suffered a 0-4 humiliation in the recently concluded Ashes series and since then things are going south from the Root-led-side. It left a fourth casualty in as many days – this time on the other side of cricket’s most entrenched rivalry when Justin Langer resigned from the post of Australia head coach – Sir Andrew Strauss accelerated plans for both short-term and long-term changes to England’s management structure.
England’s assistant coach Paul Collingwood is currently on holiday in Barbados.
Collingwood scored almost 10,000 international runs all told, and remained England’s most capped ODI cricketer. His last appearances for England came in 2011, though there was a brief international return last year, playing for the World XI as international cricket returned to Pakistan.
His credentials as the first man to lead England to a global trophy in 2010 and one whose cricketing brain continues to shape the international thinking of limited superiors mean he will be a strong contender to become white ball coach after Strauss hinted it’s time to redistribute coaching responsibilities.
Should he come up with just a second series win in the Caribbean for 54 years next month, he may even have designs on the test track.
Richard Dawson, who led England Under-19 to this weekend’s World Cup final, will also be involved in the team’s preparation for those three games.
Meanwhile, Langer will be of interest when considering Chris Silverwood’s successor. Langer effectively entered the labor market on Saturday when he resigned after a Cricket Australia board meeting.
Named at an all-time low in Australian cricket history in 2018, his job was to clean up the dingy image of a national team that had already become a national disgrace by the time the Newlands ball-tampering scandal rocked the rest of the world. . eyes on it.
Four years later, Australia is No.1 in Test Cricket, second in the current World Cup standings, came within one wicket of an Ashes whitewash and is Twenty20 world champion for the first time.
Langer was given the chance to defend that latter title on home soil later this year via a six-month contract extension. Talk about a back-handed compliment.
Earlier, Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden criticised the Australian board for its abusive actions towards a coach who has been undermined by player power in recent months.
Firm leadership now appears to be desperately needed by England amid allegations that the dressing room has become too cosy, and Strauss spoke on Friday about the benefits of an outside voice.
Those close to 51-year-old Langer believe he’s too much of a patriot to join the old enemy, but recent events plus a lucrative deal to revive England’s Test fortunes would support that theory. can put pressure on.
Strauss did little to exclude his former Middlesex team-mate on Friday from further recommendations he would make to the ECB board for a new director and coaching team, after his initial input led to the resignation of Ashley Giles, Silverwood. and Graham Thorpe.
The first task will be to identify a new supremo. Strauss himself cannot pin himself to a full-time role due to family circumstances, making Surrey’s Alec Stewart and Tom Moody among the favorites.
However, anyone coming into such a position would rightly demand influence on a variety of issues, including some input into changes to the county game designed to better prepare players for the international stage.
The field will feature Gary Kirsten, Mahela Jayawardene, possibly Andrew McDonald, but not in all likelihood two-time championship winning coach Jason Gillespie, whose knowledge of English cricket is offset by the fact that his young family is settling in Adelaide.
