It is one of those statements that you take to be a euphemism for negotiating a pay off, but time will tell. Fletcher, one of the most experienced international coaches on the planet, now has a TV commentator as his boss.
Whilst contemporaries Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson and Joe Root have become established international cricketers across all three formats, Hales has been confined to Twenty20 by the national set-up until his ODI call-up this week.
India started the five-match series against England with a draw and win, but went on to lose the next three Tests and thus the series, with their batsmen in particular looking dreadful away from home.
With England winning the five-match Test series against India three-one, with the final game at The Oval over on three days, there were clearly some impressive performances, especially in the latter half of the series.
South Africa's ODI squad is in Zimbabwe without the services of their three premier pacemen, with Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander taking a break from the action to give the youngsters a go.
The Indian selectors have to be more firm when it comes to senior players in the national squad underpeforming during a series. As of right now, they seem scared and hesitant to make changes, writes Bimal Mirwani.
The Caribbean Premier League may not be as popular as the IPL, yet, and gets played when most cricket-watching people are asleep, but it does produce some spectacular efforts, the latest of which was a catch by Guyana's Martin Guptill.
Kumar Sangakkara is the gift that keeps on giving, and whether you consider him to be a 'flat track bully' that only makes runs in Sri Lanka (you'd be wrong, look at what he did in England) or a batting master, he's always entertaining.
With England winning the fourth Test against India in Manchester, the press were full of praise for a side they were lambasting a few weeks ago. Here are some snippets from around the web.
Right, something needs to cleared up, stop all this talk of a finely-balanced, tense series. India cannot possibly win this match, or this series, and here's why, writes Scott Oliver.
Everyone's a winner. Yes, England have resumed their rightful path to the summit of the World Test rankings. The pieces are slowly falling into place...
This was an absolute shellacking of India by an England side that saw its senior players all perform in the same game for the first time in close to two years.
South Africa all-rounder Jacques Kallis retired from all international cricket on Wednesday, ending his dreams of playing in the ODI World Cup next year, and Twitter was suitably grateful for his services.
Moeen Ali wore a plastic wrist band while he was batting for England in Southampton. Hardly a big news story, but the band had 'Save Gaza' written on it.
Sri Lanka dominated the second Test in Colombo from day one, and yet they could not take all 20 South African wickets and level the series. Their spinners were impressive, and Mahela Jayawardene's ton was the highlight.
The second Test between South Africa and Sri Lanka and Colombo ended in a draw, with Sri Lanka falling two wickets short of a win and the Proteas battling hard with the bat all match after falling behind the pace early on.
It would not be surprising if Peter Moores is feeling a bit like the substitute officer as his bedraggled team head down to the Rose Bowl at a decreasing rate of knots.
The media had a lot to write about following England's 95-run defeat to India at Lord's, and most chose to focus on the hosts' failures, from Alastair Cook's captaincy, to Matt Prior's place in the side.
India won the second Test at Lord's by 95 runs on Monday, only their second Test win at the venue, and it was an all-round effort topped by some good captaincy, though the bowlers did more than their share, with both ball and bat.
The senior players failed to live up to expectations, once again putting all the pressure on the 'new era' lads, who for the most part came to the part.
That was an embarrassing a loss for England as it could have been. They've not won in 10 Test matches and lost seven of them. But this one was the worst of the lot, even worse than the Ashes capitulation.
Either response without the full facts is a little foolish, but there is a striking contradiction in the response of Team England when the Spirit of Cricket is invoked.
It's been nearly three years since India last played a Test series in England, and in 2011 the visitors were humiliated four-nil, losing by whopping margins at Lord's, Trent Bridge, Edgbaston and The Oval.
