In the December issue of All Out Cricket – in shops on November 3 – Jo Harman puts England’s support staff and management team under the microscope.
And what better man to talk to than the man who appoints them, ECB managing director Hugh Morris? To read the full feature pick up a copy of the magazine, but here are some excerpts from our interview with the man at the top to keep you going in the meantime.
What role do you play in recruiting the support staff and management team?
I chair most recruitment panels so, for example, when we appointed David Saker I chaired that panel and obviously Andy Flower sat on it as well. Our head of elite coach development Gordon Lord also sits on it. I pretty much oversee all appointments and clearly the input of Andy is really important. Between us we sit down and decide who we believe has got the right skills, knowledge and experience to do the job as best as they possibly can for us.
In your playing days you were part of an England squad that didn’t have anywhere near the number of support staff you do now. Could you have done with some more support?
Yeah, absolutely. There weren’t many at all, particularly on the science and medicine side of things. Fitness has become a really important part of the game and I think that has been area in which we’ve managed to gain an advantage over others. Our strength and conditioning coach Huw Bevan has done an outstanding job in that regard. We didn’t used to have strength and conditionings coaches but the amount of times now that we lose people to injury has decreased significantly and I think that’s directly attributed to having more significant medical backup.
We often hear talk of player burnout, but is there a risk of staff burnout too?
The staff are always there at the ground probably an hour before the players arrive, setting up the drills and getting them prepared before the game and they’re always the last to leave as well, so I’m very mindful indeed of the amount of wear and tear that happens to the management. They’re there all the time. We have begun to rest players when we feel it’s necessary to do so and as an example we rested Andy Flower for the Ireland ODI, so that’s something that we’ll continue to have a look at.
To read the full feature on England’s support staff and management team, pick up a copy of All Out Cricket issue 86.
