Strauss: Gillespie is a candidate to coach England

Cricket365
May 18, 2015

Andrew Strauss, the new Director of Cricket at the ECB, has confirmed that Jason Gillespie is one of the candidates to take over as coach of the England side.

Previous coach Peter Moores was sacked as soon as Strauss was appointed to his new position, as the former England skipper felt that Moores was slightly out of touch with his tactics at international level.

Gillespie, a former Australia fast bowler, is the most sought after coach in the cricket world at the moment and seems almost the perfect fit for England at this stage.

He is currently the coach at county side Yorkshire, who he led to the their first Championship title in more than a decade, and what could be an advantage to Gillespie is that the national side's younger players, like Joe Root and Gary Ballance, play their cricket at Headingley.

Strauss did however stress that the Aussie is not the only candidate and he will be approaching potential coaches over the next few days.

The former left-handed batsman told Sky Sports: "He's one of the candidates, absolutely. At the moment, I have just been concerning myself with the process and how we go about it. Over the next few days, we'll start approaching candidates.

"I need to go and meet them, speak to them and see their philosophy on cricket, their philosophy on coaching and whether it's aligned with what I think is in the best interests of England cricket."

Strauss also confirmed that the England Test and ODI sides will have one coach that will be in charge.

He said: "I think there will be one over-arching coach (for Tests and one-day cricket). I think you need one person in control and in charge of that environment."