Rob Key, ECB’s managing director of cricket, has asked for England’s Test team players to show full commitment towards thriving in the ‘Bazball’ age of playing longer format.
Since captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum have took over, England’s Test fortunes have made a stunning turnaround through an attacking brand of cricket and creating an environment where players prosper, with hardwork and commitment being the main pillars behind it.
“It’s not easy to do, but what the great leaders have done is they’ve created an environment that people are desperate to play. Then you have a time like we’ve done, where it’s very relaxed, and you want everyone to go out there and express themselves, and they have a bit of golf, and you have a bit of time off.”
“All we ask in return is that you commit, and I don’t care if you’re on a central contract, if you’re not committed to what we’re doing. So, if you’re not someone who’s training as hard as you possibly can, putting everything in and committing to the way that we want to do things, then you’re gone,” said Key to Sky Sports Cricket on the sidelines of second England-Sri Lanka Test at Lord’s.
England’s recent Test selections have thrown up surprises in form of Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Shoaib Bashir and more recently, Josh Hull – with all four players having little first-class cricket experiences before entering Test cricket.
Key emphasized that the he and the national selection panel takes into account the performances and averages in the County Championship, while taking note of certain qualities that potential international players should possess.
“You want batters who can put good bowlers under pressure…and you don’t always see that in county cricket. So that’s the judgement you have to make: Who has the talent and ability to do that? And you’re taking a bit of a flyer on that in some ways. Then you want batters who can soak it up.”
“So, you need both of those games and some batters when I speak to them and they say ‘Well, how do I get in?’ We say ‘You are very good at soaking up the pressure, not so good at putting the pressure on and that’s what you have to develop’. It’s the same thing with bowlers, we want a varied attack.”
“You’d love to have four Mark Woods or Jofra Archers, but that’s not the reality. What you want is people that generally can operate at that pace or above…or if you’re not that, you’ve got to have a huge amount of skill. Then you’re looking at variation, and you’re looking at where people are now and where they’re going to be.”
Asked about the rationale behind 26 contracts for England players ranging from one to three years, Key remarked, “We pay our players less, especially the top ones, than they can get in franchise cricket, but the one thing we can offer is that security. So, you look at someone like New Zealand, because there’d be some of those players in New Zealand, we go are you getting paid much more than a New Zealand cricketer?”
“Some of their best players are now turning down central contracts. That’s not a position we want to be in, so I don’t regret any of it. We can finesse it, course, and there’s always going to be people that you end up looking at and think ‘Well, they’re getting a lot of money for not doing much’. That’s the bet you have sometimes – contracts like that all around the world happen.”
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