Rob Key looking for players with ‘conviction’ as he looks to ‘change the mentality’ in English Test cricket | Cricket News

Rob Key is no stranger to answering questions.

In his former role as a Sky Sports pundit, he was asked for his views on the England Test captaincy, the futures of Stuart Broad and James Anderson and how to fix an ailing red-ball team.

Now, speaking to the media for the first time since being appointed as men’s managing director on Easter Sunday, Key was pressed for his thoughts on precisely the same topics.

The difference this time is that his answers carry greater heft. They used to generate debate, now they show how he hopes to shape English cricket’s future, in the short-term at least.

He’s like a breath of fresh air. He’s not going to give you any kind of management speech or ECB speech, he’s just going to call it as he sees it.

Nasser Hussain on Rob Key

As Key told the assembled press pack at Lord’s on Thursday, “now I have some skin in the game”.

Key: I have chance to make a difference

“Nasser [Hussain], Athers [Michael Atherton] and myself would sit around and say, ‘English cricket should do this, they should do that, that’s rubbish, that’s good’. We are all stubborn and think we’re right.

“So, when the chance came, I thought, ‘now I will have some skin in the game’. I have the chance to see what the solutions are and see if my views are any good. There is not much I know other than cricket. It’s what I love and what I talk about all the time. This is a chance to make a difference.

“English cricket is in a state of flux, to say the least, and that’s what intrigues me about the job. I hope to be able to make a difference and at some point we will find out whether that’s good or bad.”

The ECB are not trolls trying to make bad decisions, they are really good people who are trying like hell to make cricket as good as they can. I’m sure they don’t get everything right but none of us get everything right. In my experience, they are trying everything they can to drive the game forward.

England managing director of men’s cricket, Rob Key

Key has made Ben Stokes captain because the all-rounder “epitomises everything I think our red-ball team needs”; said Anderson and Broad still have “a big part to play” after being surprisingly dropped for March’s series in the West Indies; and spoke of how England require batsmen with “conviction” if they are to rebound from a run of one win in 17 Test matches and regularly challenge the top teams in the world.

Key hopes the latter comes as part of a mindset shift in red-ball cricket as he looks to lead the Test team out of the doldrums in a similar way to how the white-ball outfit rallied from a dismal 2015 World Cup to become champions four years later.

He said: “For me, it’s about changing the mentality of English red-ball cricket right throughout our system. That’s the most important thing. We have to prove that county cricket can be a breeding ground for great international cricketers as it has been before. I see no reason why it can’t.

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Key is weighing up who to appoint as England’s new Test and white-ball head coaches

“With the white-ball side, it was not about saying, ‘we want to win the World Cup’. It was about changing the mentality, the type of cricketer you wanted, the way you wanted to play, what you stood for. That’s why it has lasted longer than just winning that World Cup.

‘I want people who want to drive England forward’

“It’s not simple in red-ball cricket but I want batsmen who can put bowlers under pressure but also soak up that pressure and bat for long periods of time and make good decisions.

“Players who can adapt to pitches in Pakistan, who can play in India when the ball turns, who can play fast bowling well.

“Players who compete, who aren’t timid, who stand up and are counted when they are under fire, exactly the way Ben Stokes does with a positive mentality. That doesn’t mean playing shots but just having belief.

“I want people who back themselves all the way, not people who chop and change all the time because someone in the media might say they are batting with the wrong guard. I want people with conviction who want to drive England forward and be leaders.

“If you have that mentality right and your players can come in and perform to the top of their ability, you have a chance in everything.”

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Stuart Broad and James Anderson are available for Test selection, with new captain Ben Stokes eager for the seamers to be involved this summer

Key is adamant the batting ability is there, despite England failing to pass 300 even once in the chastening 4-0 Ashes series defeat and being rolled for 120 by West Indies a month ago.

“There are good teams and we’re way off them at the moment. But do I think we’ve got the talent to be able to compete with them? Absolutely.

“I am optimistic about English cricket, otherwise I wouldn’t have taken this job. I think there are talented cricketers. People in there at the moment as well as people like Ollie Pope, Joe Clarke, Ben Duckett. But have we been getting the best out of them? Absolutely not.

“If you give me talented cricketers, it is my job to make them play as well as they possibly can, to appoint a coach who can do that, to create an environment that can do that. That’s our duty – to make sure when players come in they can realise their talent.”

Stokes will be at the helm for the new era but Key foresees former captain Joe Root playing a pivotal role, having done an “unbelievable job” of leading the side and churning out the runs during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and all the problems that posed.

“Ben genuinely thinks he is the best person to lead England forward and I agree. He has a lot of compassion, a lot of empathy, and when you talk to him he is always thinking about the other people around him and what’s best for the side. He does not have a massive ego.

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Stokes was the stand out candidate to become Test captain, Key told Sky Sports News

Key: Root has been ‘unbelievable’ for England

“I text Joe when my position was announced and said it would be good to talk but understand if you want a break from it [after stepping down as captain].

“Within a minute, he rang me and we spoke for about an hour and a half about all the things we want to try and do to English cricket, how to move it forward.

“Finding out a bit more about the last two years, what Joe has done has been unbelievable. To play in a team that has been struggling and living through a pandemic, being captain and having to do so much and score the runs he has scored… it’s one of the great sporting achievements.

“Still now he is talking about how he can help Stokes and what we need to do. He has passion and he is just so important to English cricket. He will have a massive hand to play.

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Joe Root says the decision to step down as England captain was the most challenging of his career

“The last two years looks like it has been as tough as that team has had. They have played the best teams in the world over and over again, had tough conditions in India, and had this horrible pandemic

“Decisions haven’t been about how to win games, they have been about ‘can so and so have a cup of tea out of his room?’ It’s been b****y tough. Now we can move on, our focus can be on winning games of cricket.

“Players need to be managed but not so I can tell you who is or isn’t going to play in six months. We have to be flexible and not overthink these things. For Test cricket at the moment, we want our best team.

“That’s one thing we’ve got to do. It will be very obvious when there is a series where we want our absolute best out there and there might be a white-ball series where we can sacrifice a bit.”

‘I will do whatever is right for English cricket’

Key – who spoke with a refreshing absence of management spiel – will look to reappoint a national selector, with that role having been abolished last year and the responsibility of player selection placed principally onto then-head coach Chris Silverwood.

Silverwood was sacked after The Ashes and England are now seeking split red and white-ball coaches with Key “optimistic” the Test role will be filled ahead of the opening international of the summer, against reigning World Test Champions New Zealand at Lord’s from June 2.

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Key added: “My job is to appoint the best people we possibly can. If I do a good job with that, I can take a back seat and just make sure that they are living up to what they say.

“It’s not for me to be telling England how to bat and bowl. My role is to find people aligned with the thinking and make sure they are delivering.

“You assume my cricket background is one of the reasons I have got the job and that is what this job is. It’s a cricket job, for my money. Make the best cricket decisions you can.”

Asked what sort of managing director he will prove to be, Key said: “I will be whatever I think is right for the good of the team, what’s right for English cricket. That informs every decision you make.”

Even if that means telling players they can’t go to the IPL? “It’s not a hard question to answer, it’s my job.”