As so often in English cricket, it took an outsider to say the quiet bit out loud – even if Stephen Fleming’s contention that ‘the national team should be coached by a national representative’ seemed an odd thing to hear from a New Zealander who had just been handed the reins to the England Test side.
Fleming, though, has always been a class act, and his comments to the BBC earlier this week reflected his priority, which is to help English cricket – not just himself. Clearly, he was on to something.
After all, England’s 21st-century zeniths have all coincided with foreign coaches. Duncan Fletcher (Zimbabwe) regained the Ashes in 2005 after an 18-year gap; Andy Flower (Zimbabwe) won Test series in Australia and India, and took England to the top of the rankings; Trevor Bayliss (Australia) won England men’s first one-day World Cup.
That’s before we mention Matthew Mott (Australia), whose tenure as white-ball coach ended in disappointment but not before he had won the T20 World Cup in Australia, and Brendon McCullum (New Zealand), whose win-rate as Test coach of 55 per cent should not be overlooked because of the excesses that brought down Bazball.
Amid that quintet were three Englishmen: Peter Moores, who had two largely unsuccessful stints; Ashley Giles, who never got a fair crack of the whip in charge of the white-ball set-up; and Chris Silverwood, whose tenure was ended by the 4–0 Ashes thrashing of 2021-22.
Fleming, then, is not just articulating a view held by many: that international cricket should in part be about the fascination of pitting one country’s system against another, coaching staff included. He is also querying what at times has looked like a policy decision by the ECB, who appear to have taken one look at the English coaches fostered by the 18-team county structure, and decided they prefer the view abroad.
Stephen Fleming (left) has highlighted English cricket’s difficulties in producing elite coaches, with Fleming himself and white-ball coach Brendon McCullum (right) both Kiwis
Almost all of the high-points in England’s recent history have come under a foreign coach, such as the 2005 Ashes triumph masterminded by Zimbabwean Duncan Fletcher (left)
They have, in short, concluded that the innate conservatism of the county game is ill-suited to the task of producing coaches capable of making the big, bold calls required to thrive at international level. It is the same philosophy that has driven them to select players in spite of their county record, not because of it.
Plainly, the job of Rob Key, the ECB’s managing director of men’s cricket, is to select the best candidate. But the two nations with whom England like to seek comparison have either stopped looking abroad, or have had little need to do so.
The last non-Indian to coach India was Fletcher, whose four-year reign ended in 2015. Australia, meanwhile, have had eight head coaches, starting with Bob Simpson in 1986, and only one – the South African Mickey Arthur, who lasted just two years – was not a native.
The English game, by contrast, has always borrowed from abroad, from the players themselves – more than one in seven of their Test cricketers were born outside the UK – to their latest national selector, Australia’s Marcus North. This pragmatic multiculturalism is both a function of England’s colonial past, and a statement of insecurity.
Yet the idea that the coach of the England cricket team should be English need not be dismissed as nationalistic tub-thumping. In theory, at least, an English coach will be more instinctively in tune with an English approach to the game, and it’s not a stretch to suggest that the appointment of Fleming appears to confirm the ECB’s lack of faith in their own system.
The board can argue reasonably enough that the best person for the main job need not be dictated by their nationality: look at Thomas Tuchel in football or, not so long ago, Eddie Jones in rugby. But when only one head coach in the eight-team Hundred tournament this year was English – Moores at Trent Rockets – it suggests a deeper malaise.
When The Hundred began in 2021, Paul Farbrace, the former England assistant coach who was recently appointed director of cricket at Lancashire, suggested that four of the eight franchises should have an English coach. He recently told the Daily Telegraph: ‘I was shouted down. One of the guys in the ECB at the time said: “Oh, I couldn’t name you four who were capable of doing the job.”’
But times may be changing. For one thing, Fleming has surrounded himself with more English coaches than McCullum, whose white-ball coaching team includes fellow New Zealanders Tim Southee and Jeetan Patel, as well as Kevin Pietersen, an adopted South African.
Fleming’s new-look Test entourage consists of a trio of locals – Richard Dawson, Marcus Trescothick and Sarah Taylor (centre)
Rob Key (left) is keen for top players like Ben Stokes (right) to be mentored into coaching roles rather than head for the Sky Sports commentary box
Fleming’s new-look Test entourage consists of a trio of locals – Richard Dawson, Marcus Trescothick and Sarah Taylor – plus the experienced South African bowling coach Eric Simons. Mike Yardy, formerly of England and Sussex, was recently appointed as the ECB’s new ‘elite national batting lead’.
And the shift in emphasis is mirrored by the bespoke coaching courses overseen by the ECB’s performance director, Ed Barney, and delivered by the head of coach development, the former rugby player Diccon Edwards, which caters to international cricketers who have not had the time to do the traditional Level 3 and 4 coaching programmes.
Among those to have benefited are Ben Stokes, Andrew Flintoff – who until recently coached England Lions – Mark Wood, Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali and Jonny Bairstow. Female players include Heather Knight, Georgia Elwiss and Alice Davidson-Richards.
One part of the course is a practical element where the intake are monitored by ‘developers’ who can advise them on aspects of the job that go beyond batting and bowling technique. These players end up with a Level 3 qualification that is tailored to their schedule and ensures good cricketing brains are not automatically lost to the Sky Sports commentary box.
Key’s role, then, is to look after both the needs of the present and to lay the groundwork for a future in which the England set-up is a more accurate reflection of the English system.
‘With McCullum and Fleming, we’ve got two of the best coaches in the world,’ he tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘The national side should always take the best person for the job. Where we want to get it to in the future when these jobs come up is the best option are English candidates.’
As Fleming has intimated, English cricket is not quite ready to stand on its own two feet. But that moment may not be far away.
