Key ECB jobs for Morris & Gatting

LONDON—Hugh Morris and Mike Gatting have been handed key managerial roles as part of a major restructure of English cricket. Morris, current England and Wales Cricket Board deputy chief executive, will take over as managing director of the England team from next Monday.
Former England captain Gatting has been given the task of overseeing the first-class and recreational game. The moves comes in the wake of the Schofield report into England’s heavy Ashes defeat a year ago.
The structural overhaul also sees former England women’s captain Clare Connor succeed the retiring Gill McConway as the head of women’s cricket.
“I am delighted that Hugh, Mike and Clare have accepted these positions,” said ECB chief executive David Collier. “These appointments were recommended within the England Review and approved by the board this summer.”
Morris, 43, was a member of the seven-man Schofield committee and is expected to take on overall responsibility for all aspects of England team affairs.
A former captain of Glamorgan, he appeared in three Tests for England against West Indies and Sri Lanka in 1991 and acted up as ECB chief executive when Tim Lamb resigned in 2004.
BBC Radio 5live cricket reporter Pat Murphy said: “Morris will deal with discipline and acting as a liaison between players and head coach while taking responsibility for selection of players who’ve got injury problems.
Another selector is high on the list of priorities to ease a punishing workload in the summer One of Gatting’s key roles as Managing Director Cricket Partnerships will be to improve communication between the ECB and first-class and minor counties.
The 50-year-old is also responsible for raising standards across first-class and non-first class cricket. “In fact, the Australians have invited us over recently just to go through how we’re developing our game through the grass-roots. “I think we’re in pretty good shape around the bottom rungs. “We just have to make sure the lines of communication are open so everybody has their say and the right decisions are made to improve the players coming through.”
The ECB is also thought to be seeking a national selector - a role which Gatting has filled in the past. Gatting, who appeared in 79 Tests and captained England to their last Ashes victory in Australia in 1986/87, was last on the selection panel in 1999.
He also acted as coach, alongside former team-mate Graham Gooch, during the ill-fated series defeat to New Zealand that left England bottom in the unofficial Test rankings. The creation of the new positions fulfils one of the recommendations of the Schofield report, published in May.
The report, which suggested 18 other steps to improve the state of English cricket, called for: “The establishment of a new management structure within the ECB with full accountability and responsibility for the selection and performance of the England cricket team.”

—Agencies