Sky Sports pundit Rob Key emerges as a surprise contender for England’s managing director role

Former England batsman Rob Key has emerged as a surprise contender to become the new managing director of the England team after Alec Stewart ruled himself out of the running on Wednesday.

The managing director’s position is being filled on an interim basis by Andrew Strauss, whose first job is to make a permanent appointment to replace Ashley Giles, sacked last month following England’s 4-0 defeat in the Ashes.

Key would be a left-field choice for a job that offers overall control of the men’s England team as he has worked primarily as a pundit and commentator since retiring from county cricket at Kent six years ago.

The 42-year-old has developed into an outstanding broadcaster with Sky Sports, however, with excellent communication skills and clear views on how the game should be played and the sport structured.

Strauss previously worked as managing director between 2015 and 2018 before stepping down due to his wife’s ill health.

The Ashes-winning captain had also worked mainly in the media before taking up the role, so he may not consider Key’s inexperience to be a problem if he feels his former England team-mate has the right credentials for the job.

Key captained Kent for seven years in a long playing career, playing 15 Tests and five one-day internationals for England.

His career at Sky began as a pundit at Twenty20 Blast matches while he was still playing, but after his retirement he became a mainstay of their international coverage and is currently in Pakistan covering Australia’s tour.

Following the dismissals of Giles and coach Chris Silverwood after the Ashes defeat, Key made clear his belief that England should have separate coaches for the Test and white-ball formats, as well as arguing for the return of a national selector.

‘In this new era we will probably go for a split coaching set-up with one coach for Test cricket and one for white-ball cricket, while we’ll probably have some form of selection panel back,’ Key told Sky Sports. ‘That’s the complete opposite of what Silverwood was asked to do. He was given an impossible task.’

Stewart will not be pursuing the position for family reasons however and will remain as director of cricket at Surrey.

Other potential candidates include former national selector Ed Smith, who was sacked by Giles last year but was originally appointed to that role by Strauss, and former Australian Test players Tom Moody and Marcus North, currently directors of cricket at Sri Lanka and Durham respectively. 

ECB employers who could be promoted include England team analyst Nathan Leamon and head of performance Mo Bobat.

The managing director’s role will be the first of several major appointments made by the ECB this summer following the post-Ashes clear-out, which saw Giles, Silverwood batting coach Graham Thorpe fired over three successive days last month.

The successful candidate will be given the task of establishing a new coaching structure, overhauling the selection set-up and making the appointments.