Stephen Fleming, England’s new Test coach, feels that his post should ideally be held by an Englishman and has committed to make the development of English coaches a priority throughout his term.
Fleming is the second consecutive New Zealander to hold the position, having agreed to succeed Brendon McCullum on a four-year term earlier this year. It maintains England’s tradition of hiring foreign test coaches, with only two Englishmen holding the position full-time in the twenty-first century: Peter Moores (2007-09 and 2014-15) and Chris Silverwood (2019-22).
Fleming’s newly appointed support team includes several prospective future Test coaches, including Richard Dawson, James Foster, and Marcus Trescothick, who held the position on an interim basis earlier this year. Former England player Jonathan Trott will coach the England Lions this winter, while Mike Yardy has been appointed national batting lead at the ECB. Fleming stated on BBC Radio 5 Live that he believes the national team should be coached by a national representative.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity, but there will be some development in terms of the coaching and you can see by our staff that there are some really key people that have come back into the system, and I’m really pleased about that and I look forward to working with them, but it [the development of English coaches] is a real focus.”
Dawson stepped down as Glamorgan’s head coach earlier this month to take on a dual role as national spin-bowling leader and one of Fleming’s assistants, and Rob Key, England’s managing director, hinted that he would be “near the top of that list” when it came to appointing Fleming’s successor in the coming years.
Fleming has stated that he intends to bring several county coaches into the England setup as their schedules allow, in order to boost their development.
“It’s an ambition as well that you will also get county coaches who will be introduced at certain times, and you will get past players that will be asked to come back as well,” he stated. “It’s really inclusive and a comfortable nature around using what’s around, but also driving what should be driven within the county game and the English game.”
Fleming will not take command of his first series until England travels to South Africa in December, with Trescothick filling in for their victory over Pakistan in August-September. Fleming traveled to the UK last month on a fact-finding mission and stated that he will do the same ahead of next summer’s Ashes series, in stark contrast to McCullum.
“Yeah, I’ll be around,” Fleming replied. “I actually really liked this year getting to catch up with a lot of the men that I played with [who] are now in roles at counties, either as coaches or as heads. “It was good to catch up with those guys and get a good feel for where the county game is at. It will be a key part in continuing to develop players.”
Fleming also hinted strongly that England will continue to operate without a frontline spinner in South Africa, instead depending on part-time options in Jacob Bethell, Dan Lawrence and Joe Root. “Pitches are becoming a little bit more seamer-friendly [in Test cricket],” he added. “Games are over in three and a half to four days at most. With the introduction of drop-ins, there isn’t as much degeneration in many wickets as there used to be, making it much more difficult [for spinners].
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“What you’re witnessing is the development of part-time spinners, such as the Bethells, Lawrences, and Roots. And then, when you combine that with four seamers, it’s a decent – if not more than adequate – attack to get through a Test match, so the dynamic has altered at the moment.”
