ECB abolishes selector's role, head coach to pick teams

LONDON: The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Wednesday decided to do away with the post of national selector — currently held by Ed Smith — and give complete authority to the men's team head coach who will have overall responsibility for future squad selections.

The ECB said in a statement that, "As part of the restructure, the role of National Selector, currently held by Ed Smith, who was appointed in spring 2018, will no longer exist, and Smith will leave the ECB at the end of the month. In those three years England have enjoyed success across all formats, including becoming ICC 50-over Men's World Champions in 2019 and are currently ranked 1st, 1st and 4th across the three formats.

"This new structure, developed by Managing Director, England Men's Cricket, Ashley Giles, will give clear accountability to the England Men's Head Coach, Chris Silverwood, who will have overall responsibility for future squad selections from this point. The Head Coach and the respective red-ball and white-ball Captains, Joe Root and Eoin Morgan, will continue to work together on selecting the final playing eleven," the ECB said.

The ECB said that a support system is in place to provide the head coach with necessary inputs to facilitate selections.

"Supporting this system will be a resource that will provide intelligence from performance analysis, talent ID, scouting, medical and sports science. There will be further input from the England Men's Performance Director, Mo Bobat and James Taylor, who will see his job title change from England Selector to Head Scout. Coaches aligned to the men's international teams will all feed into this process," the ECB said.

England Men's Cricket managing director, Ashley Giles, while thanking Ed Smith said, "The current process of selecting England teams has been in place for over 120 years. Even though this system has its merits, with advances in technology and a greater information gathering resource at our disposal than ever before, the restructure is in the best interests of helping England men's teams be successful.

"The new structure also makes lines of accountability much clearer, with Chris Silverwood, as Head Coach, taking ultimate responsibility for picking England senior men's squads," said Giles. (IANS)

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