LONDON: The England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) new chairman Colin Graves insisted on Monday that the decision on England’s new head coach was one for Andrew Strauss.

Former captain Strauss was on Saturday named as English cricket’s new director and his first job will be to find a replacement for Peter Moores, who was sacked in the wake of his appointment.

Graves will start his role with the ECB on Thursday and there has been speculation that he is keen to appoint Yorkshire’s title-winning coach Jason Gillespie to replace Moores.

But Graves said the decision was not his to make.

“It is Andrew Strauss who takes that call as he builds his team around him,” Graves told The Times.

“We will not rush into any decision overnight.

“The decision to sack Peter Moores was not a knee-jerk one and this will not be either. Andrew will have an idea who he has in mind and wants to talk to.

“It is his recommendation and he will bring that to (chief executive) Tom Harrison and then to me.”

Another former captain, Ian Botham, believes Australian Gillespie should be the man Strauss picks, with Joe Root appointed captain at Alastair Cook’s expense.

Writing in the Daily Mirror, England’s second-highest Test wicket-taker said: “The shake up that the England cricket team has long needed is under way and the selection of Jason Gillespie as coach would be a perfect fit.

“But he should not be the only new appointment in the dressing room, he should be taking charge alongside Joe Root. It is time for Alastair Cook to move aside and take some of the responsibility for the mistakes that have been made over the last 18 months.

“He has seen off almost all the coaches and management from the debacle Down Under (the 2013 Ashes whitewash), he has seen (former director) Paul Downton come and go and now Peter Moores, yet he is still captain. How does that work?”

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2015

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