Ashley Giles's three-year spell as England managing director over after Ashes defeat in Australia; Sir Andrew Strauss to take role temporarily
Thursday 3 February 2022 06:58, UK
Ashley Giles has been relieved of his duties as England managing director in the wake of England's 4-0 Ashes defeat to Australia.
Giles had found his position under pressure along with head coach Chris Silverwood and batting coach Graeme Thorpe as the ECB examined England's uninspiring performance in Australia.
The 48-year-old took over the role in January 2019 after succeeding Sir Andrew Strauss, who will now take temporary charge.
Tom Harrison, ECB chief executive officer, said: "I'm extremely grateful to Ashley for his commitment and contribution to England men's cricket over the last three years.
"Under his leadership the teams have scored some notable results, most memorably the dramatic victory in the 2019 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, while dealing with some of the most challenging times English cricket has ever been through.
"He's highly respected throughout the game and has made a huge contribution to the ECB and England Men's cricket.
"Off the back of a disappointing men's Ashes this winter we must ensure we put in place the conditions across our game to enable our Test team to succeed."
In his three years in the job Giles oversaw England's World Cup success as well as their ascent as the No.1-ranked T20 team in the world and No. 2 50-over team.
Series defeats to Australia, India, New Zealand and West Indies, however, fuelled concerns over the progress of England's red-ball system and the production of Test players.
Giles said: "I'd like to thank everyone for the support they've given me, particularly all the staff and the players, as well as the Board for giving me this opportunity.
"The past couple of years have been incredibly challenging and I'm proud of what we've been able to deliver in the toughest of circumstances. This has undoubtedly protected the future of the game in England and Wales.
"Despite these challenges, over the past three years, we have become 50-over World Champions, the top-ranked T20I side in the world, we remain fourth-ranked Test team and our U19s have just reached the World Cup final for the first time in 24 years. I wish all our players and staff great success for the future.
"I'm now looking forward to spending some time with my family before looking at the next challenge."
Former England captain Nasser Hussain...
"I think when you lose an Ashes series 4-0, and the way they have played in Test-match cricket over the last year or so, it was always going to be on the cards that there was going to be upheaval in the management with the tour of the West Indies imminent and they had to make some decisions about people off the field.
"They're going to have to make some decisions more importantly on the on-field cricketers as well but once you lose 4-0, and the manner of those defeats as well, they were hardly in a session in that Ashes Test series. All eyes were on Chris Silverwood as the coach, and it looks like there's going to be real upheaval because Ashley Giles is the first man out the door.
"I have a lot of sympathy for both Silverwood and Ashley Giles, because in the last couple of years England have played more Test cricket than anybody else and more Test cricket away from home in a pandemic. Their players have been in bubbles and travelling the world and it's been incredibly difficult to get 11 players switched on and playing good quality cricket all around the world.
"I think mistakes were made off the field. Ashley Giles himself made mistakes. The mistake really for Ashley was to get rid of Ed Smith as the national selector and just put everything on Chris Silverwood, all selection decisions, everything, and that meant there was no outside noise at all coming in just questioning the odd decision here and there. I just looked as if they needed somebody from the outside knocking on the door and questioning them.
"Ashley Giles has tried to look after his players, there's been a lot of rest and rotation. They've not always played their best side in Test cricket so in trying to look after his players, results have gone in the wrong direction and I'm afraid as Director of Cricket or coach or captain you're only judged on results and in Test-match cricket England sit bottom of the World Test Championship table.
"I feel disappointed for Ashley Giles tonight because Ashley Giles is a top, top bloke, I can tell you that. I captained him, I worked with him and he was very very emotional before the Test Match when he flew out to Australia.
"He was almost in tears in the BBC interview he did, because he looked after his players. In Covid, Ashley Giles was guilty of one thing and that's looking after his players, and doing a duty of care on his players and I can't be too critical of a good bloke trying to look after his staff."
Former England opening batsman Nick Compton...
"I think it's the correct decision, people when they're in senior positions, are paid a lot of money and unfortunately I think he made some incorrect decisions when it came to getting rid of the national selector and also giving Chris Silverwood as much power as he did. I think they should have given it to Gary Kirsten, I think he was the right man for the job and unfortunately Ashley Giles has paid the price.
"You've got to look at the system, the scheduling, there's been a lot of criticism. There has been a real priority on white-ball cricket, we know that, they've seen and reaped the rewards in that form of the game but I think they have to turn their attention to red-ball cricket, it's been sort of put on the back pages.
"Whoever comes in now has got a big job ahead of them to look at trying to balance that out, we don't want to get rid of white-ball cricket because it's been a real strength of English cricket but I think it's important the person who does come in makes sure we look at some of the players who aren't coming in.
"England's Test cricket demise has been somewhat an inevitability and I think Joe Root is somebody who, yes, has made poor decisions.
"They prioritised white-ball cricket, there have been a number of decisions that have been made that I don't think have been made in the best interests of developing the next crop of talent. You look at some of the counties and the coaching structures, it's not a surprise that batsman have struggled.
"Ten years ago we had streams of players scoring a thousand runs a season, now you can barely find one or two. The volume of runs scored, the technical application, the discipline, and let's be honest the focus on developing players in red ball cricket hasn't been there, it's all been about backing yourself playing white-ball cricket, players' eyes have been turned to the sums of money up for grabs around the world, we can't blame them of course."
Former England international Rob Key...
"I never like when people talk about structure. I'm always more of person who talks about getting the right people in and then building the right structure around them. What England did was almost build the structure and not have the right people in.
"I've seen in the media about maybe Alec Stewart coming in as an interim coach, I think he'd be fantastic at that job, if he wanted to do it. Somebody who has all the experience, all the credibility, is a coach or director of cricket at the moment as well. There might be one solution.
"Who these people are is not an easy thing. You can bet that at some stage in the future we'll split that coaching role rather than having one person in charge of it all.
"I think this is where we maybe got it wrong. We've got a lot of coaches that facilitate for players these days, and players love that. That's what they want, but sometimes that's not always the best thing.
"We see this whole thing going on in Australia where it doesn't look like the players have a great deal of time for Justin Langer, he's a bit of hard taskmaster, but they've won the T20 World Cup, they've come back from that sandpaper gate, they've won the Ashes easily, Australian cricket is on the rise. And he might not be the most popular coach, but who cares if they're winning everything like they are at the moment?"
