Rob Key hopes to have the test coach before the New Zealand series in June and plans to reappoint a national coach; Key insists Test cricket is a priority and England have plenty of batting talent despite recent struggles, he praises Joe Root’s ‘incredible job’ during the Covid pandemic
Rob Key is no stranger to answering questions.
In his previous role as sky sports expert, he was asked for his opinion on England’s Test captaincy, the future of Stuart Broad and James Anderson and how to fix a troubled red-ball team.
Now speaking to the media for the first time since he was named managing director of men on Easter Sunday, Key was pressed for his thoughts on precisely the same issues.
The difference this time is that your answers carry more weight. They used to spark debate, now they show how he hopes to shape the future of English cricket, at least in the short term.
As Key told the press pack assembled at Lord’s on Thursday, “I’ve got some skin in the game now.”
“Nasser [Hussain]Others [Michael Atherton] and I sat down myself and said: ‘English cricket should do this, they should do that, that’s rubbish, that’s good.’ We are all stubborn and think we are right.
“So when the opportunity came, I thought, ‘now I’ll have some skin in the game’. I get to see what the solutions are and see if my views are any good. There’s not much I know other than cricket. It’s what I love and talk about all the time. This is an opportunity to make a difference.
“English cricket is in a state of flux, to say the least, and that’s what intrigues me about the job. I hope I can make a difference and at some point we’ll find out if that’s good or bad.”
Key named Ben Stokes captain because the all-rounder “sums up everything I think our red ball team needs”; he said Anderson and Broad still have “an important role to play” after being shocked out of the March series in the West Indies; and he spoke of how England require batsmen with “conviction” if they are to bounce back from a 17 Test match winning streak and regularly challenge the best teams in the world.
Key hopes the latter is part of a mindset shift in red-ball cricket as he looks to lift the Test team out of the doldrums in a similar way to how the cue-ball team bounced back from a dismal 2015 World Cup. to become champions four. years later.
He said: “For me it’s about changing the mentality of red ball English cricket throughout our system. That’s the most important thing. We have to show that county cricket can be a breeding ground for great international cricketers. as it has been before. I don’t see any reason why it can’t.
“With the white ball side, it wasn’t about saying ‘we want to win the World Cup’. It was about changing the mindset, the kind of cricketer you wanted, the way you wanted to play, what you stood for. That’s why it lasted longer than winning that World Cup.
“It’s not simple in red ball cricket, but I want batsmen who can put pressure on bowlers but also absorb that pressure and bat for long periods of time and make good decisions.
“Players who can adapt to pitches in Pakistan, who can play in India when the ball turns, who can play fast bowling well.
“Players who compete, who aren’t shy, who stand up and count themselves out when they’re under fire, exactly like Ben Stokes does with a positive mindset. That doesn’t mean playing shots but having faith.
“I want people who stick with it until the end, not people who cut and change all the time because someone in the media might say they’re hitting off the wrong guard. I want people with conviction who want to push England forward and be leaders.”
“If you have that right mindset and your players can come in and perform to the best of their ability, you have a chance in everything.”
Key is convinced the batting ability is there, despite England failing to go over 300 even once in the 4-0 Ashes series loss and receiving 120 from the West Indies a month ago.
“There are good teams and we are far from them at the moment. But do I think we have the talent to be able to compete with them? Absolutely.”
“I’m optimistic about English cricket, otherwise I wouldn’t have taken this job. I think there are talented cricketers. There are people there at the moment, as well as people like Ollie Pope, Joe Clarke, Ben Duckett. But have we been putting the best of them?Absolutely not.
“If they give me talented cricketers, it’s my job to make them play the best they can, to appoint a manager who can do that, to create an environment that can do that. That’s our duty: to make sure that when the players come in, they can realize his talent.
Stokes will be at the helm of the new era, but Key envisions former captain Joe Root playing a pivotal role, having done an “incredible job” leading the team and producing races during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and all the troubles that have come with it. raised.
“Ben really believes he is the best person to take England forward and I agree. He has a lot of compassion, a lot of empathy, and when you talk to him he always thinks about the other people around him and what is best for the side. He doesn’t have a massive ego.
