It looks like all change in the England set-up, following the announcement of two key posts and the expected departure of Andy Flower next year. Paul Downton has been picked to replace the outgoing Hugh Morris as the ECB's managing director of cricket, signalling the continuing importance of business experience in the world of cricket. Well, I suppose it's better than the days not so long ago of the old school (and MCC) tie ruling the roost and picking players on the basis of how well they performed at Lord's!
To his credit he is a qualified coach and enjoyed a lot of success with Middlesex and England in the 1980s. A Boucher-like bail-in-the-eye injury ended his playing career prematurely in 1991 but, let's face it, the ECB role is all about finance, sponsorship, TV deals rather than what's on the pitch. That's the job of the coaches and selectors, and Yorkshire businessman and former Leicestershire favourite James Whitaker steps up into Geoff Miller's shoes as the chairman of selectors from early 2014.
Downton played more than 600 senior matches, claiming 971 catches and 153 stumpings, most of them probably while 'keeping to spinners Emburey and Edmonds. Batting was less crucial to a wicketkeeper in that era, but the ex- public schoolboy from Kent scored six centuries and more than 8,000 first-class runs, giving him the edge over contemporary rivals for the England spot, Bruce French and Jack Richards. Nevertheless, the Middlesex man played only 30 Tests and 28 ODIs. It wasn't exactly England's finest decade and over half of his caps were earned against the all-conquering West Indies. It couldn't have been easy standing behind the stumps watching Richards, Greenidge, Haynes et al smash the ball everywhere, then try and survive with the bat facing Holding, Garner, Marshall and the rest.
James Whitaker made only one Test appearance but he can at least say he was an Ashes winner! Jack Richards, not Downton, kept wicket in the drawn game at Adelaide in December 1986, where the Leicestershire batsman made just 11 in his single spell at the crease. A few months later he payed in two ODIs at Sharjah, making four in a defeat to India before steering England home t victory over Pakistan. He also enjoyed a seventeen-season career at Grace Road, his most prolific being in 1986 - hence the England selection - and went on to captain the county to two Championship titles in the '90s. He also became Leicestershire's director of cricket for a while until getting the England call-up as a selector. He appeared in three short of 600 games, aggregating a shade under 25,000 senior runs with 38 first-class hundreds.
I wonder whether someone with more recent experience of playing international cricket will join the selection panel alongside Flower and Giles. The likes of Strauss, Fraser and co, who expressed an interest in the bigger role will presumably not apply as it's not big enough for them. Still, it shouldn't be an onerous role as long as there are enough scouts checking form, technique and temperament of all the leading contenders for places in Test, ODI and T20 squads. I don't foresee any serious change in direction for England as a result of the changes, and nor need there be.
