The Sunday Times - UK (2022-05-01)

18 May 1, 2022The Sunday Times

Sport Cricket

T

he ECB will this week begin

the process of recruiting new

head coaches to run the

England Test and white-ball

teams, and although putting

everything in the hands of

one man has not been com-

pletely ruled out, it is consid-

ered highly unlikely. Splitting the

roles seems like the obvious course in

the present circumstances, but it is

nonetheless a radical option and

there is no guarantee that it will work.

England have had a cricket man-

ager or head coach since 1986 and

except for a brief, unhappy period

lasting a little more than a year from

2012-14 when Andy Flower and Ashley

Giles co-piloted the teams, they have

always had one person in overall

charge. As things stand, no other

major Test-playing country divides

responsibilities in the way that Rob

Key, the ECB’S new managing director

of men’s cricket, is now proposing.

It is a gamble but England’s situa-

tion is particular. They play more

cricket than other international sides

and are on tour more often. So con-

gested is their fixture list that there is

little time to plan and prepare. Next

winter, England teams will be on the

road from mid-September to mid-

March, except for a short break over

Christmas and new year, and in Feb-

ruary the white-ball teams will be

involved in warm-ups in Bangladesh

while the red-ball group is engaged in

a Test match in New Zealand.

Key believes that by splitting the

work, more coaches will be encour-

aged to apply. “Younger, modern

coaches have got young families and

England play a lot of cricket, but if you

split it you open the field,” he said this

week. “If there’s a white-ball series

on, that’s a chance [for the Test coach]

to maybe prepare, maybe get round

and look at county cricket.

“He can be planning and prepar-

ing, or recharging his batteries.

There’s no point splitting the coach-

ing and then telling people they’ve got

to work all the time. I’ve no real issue

with that. They need to get their team

SIMON

WILDE

Cricket Correspondent

SPLIT

COACHES?

Spreading workload to

avoid burnout makes

sense but dividing Test

and white-ball roles can

blur lines and confuse

the players – just look

at Flower and Giles

all smiles

It starts

off

The partnership

between Giles,

left, and Flower

did not succeed

but Key, right,

wants to go

back to a

two-coach

system

but seldom ends that way

PHILIP BROWN

leading contenders for yesterday’s

first classic of the season, the 2,000

Guineas which attracted a close to

capacity 17,000 crowd to the

Rowley Mile course.

Buick had his pick of the two

On a Wednesday morning two and a

half weeks ago, William Buick rode

the three-year-old colt Coroebus on

Newmarket heath. Nothing

exceptional about that in a town

where more than 2,000 horses are

exercised every day, except that

when the horse quickened that

morning he quite took Buick’s

breath away. There was, though, a

caveat.

“If I didn’t have Native Trail,” he

said to the trainer Charlie Appleby,

“I could not be any more happy

about riding Coroebus. What a

second horse to have!” Native Trail

and Coroebus are both trained by

Appleby and race in the blue silks of

Godolphin, the breeding and racing

empire owned by Sheikh

Mohammed. They were the two

David Walsh Newmarket

RACING

colts, although there was never

much doubt about which he would

choose. Native Trail was judged

Europe’s best two-year-old last

season and his unbeaten record

included two Group 1s. A sliver of

doubt stayed inside Buick’s head

because he knew how good

Coroebus was. As much as a jockey

would like to ride two horses in one

race, it’s not possible.

Buick was on Native Trail, his

understudy, James Doyle, on

Coroebus.

The first 2,000 Guineas

happened in 1809 and five years

later came the fillies’ equivalent,

the 1,000 Guineas. Back then the

men who governed horse racing

decided the colts’ race should have

a 2,000-guinea purse, the fillies

race got half that, hence it became

known as the 1000 Guineas. Today,

both races have the same purse. Not

that Buick was worried about

money, all he prayed was that he

had picked the right one.

They were drawn as far apart as

they could have been, Buick and

Native Trail in stall 15, Doyle and

Coroebus out in the middle of the

track in stall 1. Coroebus was the

Doyle celebrates after Coroebus held off his stablemate Native Trail

Appleby

and Doyle

finally land

the 2,000

Guineas

TIM GOODE/PA