Category: Cricket

Managing director of men’s cricket wants a team that consistently win while preparing future captains and coaches

After a chaotic and miserable eight months, in which England’s Test team lost the Ashes in Australia, a home series against New Zealand, a captain, a coach, their once rampant self-confidence and a fair amount of respect, the appointment of Stephen Fleming gives them a chance to pivot towards a future that suddenly looks beguilingly bright, if mainly because for now it exists only in the imagination.

On Friday, Rob Key, the managing director of men’s cricket since April 2022, refused to admit to making any mistakes in that time. But as he explained the process behind Fleming’s recruitment, he occasionally and inadvertently damned himself. When he spoke about creating an environment designed to hone “all these players with so much potential who need refinement”, he said: “A lot of it’s about, can we bring someone in who can get this team to do the basics bloody well?” It probably didn’t need to take four years to realise such a person might be useful.

Continue reading...

• England captain retired from international game in June

• Key says Fleming will start as Test coach in September

Rob Key has opened the door for Ben Stokes to return to England’s Test team a month after the former captain’s shock international retirement, saying he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the 35-year-old decides to come back into a new-look red-ball set-up for next summer’s Ashes.

England’s managing director of men’s cricket insisted his relationship with Stokes has not frayed beyond repair should the player decide to return to the international fold. “Not at all, not as far as I’m concerned,” Key said.

Continue reading...

New Zealander has won the County Championship and makes those around him better but is also not averse to mind games

With two games of the 2005 season remaining Nottinghamshire, under the captaincy of Stephen Fleming, were sitting precariously at the top of the County Championship, still needing to visit their two main rivals. First up was Kent: Notts were 397 for five after the first day, but rain washed out most of the second and at the end of the third Kent were only five down. A draw looked inevitable, and with a Shane Warne-inspired Hampshire – Notts’ final opponents – on their way to victory at Glamorgan the title chase seemed to be turning. But Fleming had other plans.

“He called a meeting of the senior players on the fourth morning to say he had an idea,” says Darren Bicknell, his Notts teammate. “If Kent didn’t win the game against us, they were dead, they’d have no way to win the title, so he recognised that he had them over a barrel a little bit.” Fleming offered Kent the chance to chase 420 in 70 overs, an unlikely target – but also the best they were going to get. “To take a calculated gamble in that game was a stroke of genius,” Bicknell says. “Some of the senior players were a bit anxious, thinking we didn’t need to take any risks because the draw was still a good result. But people went with him.”

Continue reading...

• New Zealander will take over for South Africa series

• Trescothick named interim coach for Pakistan Tests

Stephen Fleming has been confirmed as the new coach of the England men’s Test team, with Joe Root returning for a second spell as captain. Marcus Trescothick will take interim charge for the three-game series against Pakistan which starts at Headingley in three weeks, with Fleming due to arrive in the country “later this summer” and assume the reins for this winter’s trip to South Africa.

Following what the England and Wales Cricket Board described as “a rigorous process, which involved numerous high-quality candidates”, Fleming emerged as a unanimous choice. Rob Key, the managing director of men’s cricket, who led the recruitment process, said England were “very fortunate that someone of his calibre is willing to take on the challenge”, adding: “I believe he is the best person to guide a team stacked full of potential and turn that talent into a world-class outfit that can not only achieve success but sustain it.”

Continue reading...

• New Zealander will succeed Brendon McCullum

• Likely to start on South Africa tour in December

Stephen Fleming is expected to be named as England’s Test coach, after impressing the England and Wales Cricket Board in a series of interviews over the past two weeks. The 53-year-old would work alongside his predecessor, compatriot, former teammate and friend Brendon McCullum, who remains in charge of the white-ball teams.

Fleming stood down as head coach of the Indian Premier League franchise Chennai Super Kings – as well as their subsidiaries Joburg Super Kings in South Africa’s SA20 and Texas Super Kings in America’s Major League Cricket – this month. That announcement was made after CSK finished eighth out of 10 teams in this year’s IPL, following on from a last-place finish in 2025, but also less than 24 hours after McCullum was sacked by the ECB as Test coach.

Continue reading...

• ‘Everyone looks at all opportunities,’ says Australian

• He is sceptical new Test coach can work with McCullum

Justin Langer says he has had no contact from the England and Wales Cricket Board about coaching the men’s Test team, and expressed scepticism over whether the proposed structure of having the new red-ball coach operate alongside their predecessor, Brendon McCullum, who remains in charge of the white-ball sides, can work.

The 55-year-old, who played 105 Tests for Australia and coached them between 2018 and 2022, was an early frontrunner for the England job after McCullum was sacked this month. But preliminary interviews have now been held with the candidates favoured by Rob Key, the ECB’s managing director of men’s cricket.

Continue reading...

Finding a candidate to lead the red-ball side is no easy task, with Ben Stokes gone and Brendon McCullum still around

As England’s men scatter for the Hundred, ready to pull on new colours, ingratiate themselves with their new paymasters and use the word “exciting” repeatedly, the management above them could be forgiven for letting out a sigh of relief.

Not that everything is shipshape going into their month-long recess. Far from it. Test cricket is king in this country, No 1 across all age groups and demographics – as per Richard Gould, chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, in his Ashes review in March – and in that regard the first half of the season still goes down as a bit of a shambles.

Continue reading...