England Next Coach: England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), as it seems, is doing everything it can to persuade Gary Kirsten for the Test team coach. ECB Managing Director Rob Key has said that it will allow the coaches to keep their IPL jobs, meaning Kirsten can still be the mentor of Gujarat Titans. Follow ENG vs NZ Live and IPL 2022 Live Updates with InsideSport.IN.
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England Next Coach: ECB MD Rob Key desperate to have Gary Kirsten as coach, ‘will let him RETAIN’ Gujarat Titans job in IPL
In an interview with Nasser Hussain for Sky Sports, Rob Key said that, “it will not be an issue” if the coach wants to keep his IPL job. It should be noted that England will be the first team to have a split coaching role for white-ball and red-ball formats.
“You have to move with the times and it’s like with players. If you take Jos Buttler for example, Buttler can play the whole of the IPL but a coach could not do it? I don’t see that as an issue at the moment and who knows where we are going in five, six, seven years’ time,” Rob Key said.
England Next Coach: ECB MD Rob Key desperate to have Gary Kirsten as coach, ‘will let him RETAIN’ Gujarat Titans job in IPL
Rob Key argued that since there is no international cricket during IPL, it should not be a problem to let the head coach attend to his IPL commitments.
“There’s no international cricket on during the IPL, so I don’t see it as an issue in the day and age we live in, where it would be an issue if you are a coach doing that,” he added.
England Next Coach: ECB MD Rob Key desperate to have Gary Kirsten as coach, ‘will let him RETAIN’ Gujarat Titans job in IPL
England Cricket Next Coach shortlist:
- Gary Kirsten (Test)
- Simon Katich (Test)
- Brendon McCullum (White-ball team)
- Otis Gibson (Test)
- Paul Collingwood (white-ball)
- Richard Dawson (white-ball)
- Mark Alleyne (white-ball)
England Next Coach: ECB MD Rob Key desperate to have Gary Kirsten as coach, ‘will let him RETAIN’ Gujarat Titans job in IPL
If ECB does allow the coach to be with the IPL franchise during the March-May window, it will be the first board to do so. Even the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) doesn’t allow the head coach or any coaches associated with state teams to join IPL franchises. In India, it is considered a conflict of interest.
However, England is willing to take the risk. Rob Key believes, players like Jofra Archer can be recalled midway through the IPL to manage their workload but the coach can stay and finish the job.
“You have got to take everything in its individual case. Someone might say, ‘how can you then call someone back, how could you call say Jofra [Archer] back from the IPL when the coach is there the whole time?’ I will tell you what, the coach is not running into bowl and potentially going to get injured,” Rob Key said.
England Next Coach: ECB MD Rob Key desperate to have Gary Kirsten as coach, ‘will let him RETAIN’ Gujarat Titans job in IPL
England Next Coach: ECB MD Rob Key desperate to have Gary Kirsten as coach, ‘will let him RETAIN’ Gujarat Titans job in IPL
As of now, Gary Kirsten is the frontrunner to take the Test team job ahead of England’s homes series against New Zealand. While it was reported that he will have to quit the Gujarat Titans mentorship role, with Rob’s statement, he can now keep the job.
“You can’t just have blanket rules for everything, you have got to look at each individual case and think about what is the best thing for us to do here. I would much rather have the best person for ten months of the year than someone not as good for 12,” Rob Key said.
England Next Coach: ECB MD Rob Key desperate to have Gary Kirsten as coach, ‘will let him RETAIN’ Gujarat Titans job in IPL
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