News

England eye one coach for all formats after Trevor Bayliss steps down, says Ashley Giles

Written by Vishwas Gupta

England are “99.9% likely” to have one coach to oversee the men’s Test, ODI and T20 teams when Trevor Bayliss steps down, says Ashley Giles.

Head coach Bayliss will leave the role at the end of the 2019 Ashes after four years in the position.

Giles, who replaced Andrew Strauss as head of men’s cricket in December, said it was important to have a coach who “fits in with our team culture”.

“I think consistency of communication is really important,” Giles, 45, said.

Giles, England’s managing director, previously led the one-day side from 2012 to 2014, with then team director Andy Flower focusing on the Test side.

He told reporters that he wants a support team of three assistants working underneath the head coach, rather than splitting the coaching for each format.

Giles told the Test Match Special podcast: “I’m about 99.9% sure that I want one man to do that job in the future.

“The last thing we want is a football-style mentality where a guy comes in, brings his whole backroom staff with him, and the whole structure falls apart.”

Australian Bayliss was appointed in 2015 and has overseen England’s progress in all three international formats.

Under Bayliss, England have risen to the top of the one-day rankings, but they have had a mixed record in Tests.

Giles said that having just one Englishman coach the team full-time in 20 years was “a pretty sorry state of affairs”.

Peter Moores coached the England side in all three formats from 2007 to 2009 and again from 2014 to 2015.

“We’ve had one lead English coach in 20 years, and he’s done it twice,” ex-England spinner Giles said.

“It’s a pretty sorry state of affairs for our coach development department.

“I think the romantic in all of us would think ‘one day wouldn’t it be great to have an English coach who could do that job and do it well?”

Assistant coach, Paul Farbrace, will leave the England set-up after the tour of West Indies to take up Giles’ old role as sport director of Warwickshire.

 

“Warwickshire said he could have stayed up until the Ashes, but given that departure was coming already, we felt staging that was the best way to go,” Giles said.

“We have Paul Collingwood waiting in the wings who we think can be a really able assistant in that World Cup squad.”

“He replaces Farby in terms of head count, but in terms of structure, I see a head coach, and three guys working underneath that head coach.”

England won the first game of their five-match one-day series against West Indies on Wednesday.

About the author

Vishwas Gupta