English cricket must move on without Giles after dire winter

(Image credit: Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

published 1 April 2014

ENGLISH cricket looks set for a major shake-up this summer, with a new coach likely to replace Ashley Giles and new blood coming into the team.

After the humiliation of the Ashes tour, which saw England whitewashed by Australia, the team ended the winter in dire fashion, losing to the Netherlands as they crashed out of the World T20. "England's dismal winter sank to a fresh nadir when they were skittled for 88 by a Dutch bowling attack led by Mudassar Bukhari, a former assistant manager of Burger King at Amsterdam Schiphol airport," laments the Daily Telegraph. It was an "acutely embarrassing" way for Giles to end his audition for the role of head coach, adds the paper, and it could scupper his chances of landing the job. England are committed to appointing a single head coach across all formats of the game and Giles, who has been England's one-day coach since November 2012, was seen as the favourite for the role after the resignation of Andy Flower. However, England's grim limited-overs performances do not bode well, and the Telegraph believes that Australian Trevor Bayliss is now in pole position to take over. Under Giles England have played 48 one-day matches, a combination of ODI and Twenty20 games, and have won just 19 of them, losing 27, notes Michael Atherton in The Times. "The numbers do not stack up," he writes. Giles is seen as a "straightforward", "fairminded" and "affable" bloke says Atherton, but those are "totally irrelevant" attributes. He claims that Peter Moores, the former England coach who quit after falling out with ex-international Kevin Pietersen, is now favourite for the job. Michael Carberry also sticks the knife into Giles in an interview with The Guardian in which the Ashes opener says he was "bitterly disappointed" with his treatment by the England selectors, who he accuses of parroting "lip-service cliches". However, there is something to look forward to as the new domestic season beckons, reports the Times. After 18 defeats in 23 games over the winter the England team is in "a state of bewildering flux, raising hopes among county cricketers across the country that a string of impressive performances could catch the eye of the new head coach". It suggests that wicketkeeper Jos Buttler, batsmen Eoin Morgan and James Taylor along with bowlers Chris Jordan and Tymal Mills will be hoping to catch the eye of the selectors. Indeed, it smacks of a new era, says Michael Vaughan in the Telegraph. "This is the perfect time in many ways for a new man to grab hold of the reins of English cricket and introduce players with character," he says.