Fleming: England’s Test side should be led by an English coach

Stephen Fleming, appointed England Test head coach in July, said on BBC Radio 5 Live that the national team should be coached by someone from England. Fleming, who will take charge of his first series in South Africa in December and January, described developing English coaches as a priority of his tenure.

Since 1999 only two Englishmen — Peter Moores (twice) and Chris Silverwood — have been head coach of the Test side, while Ashley Giles served as white-ball coach during that period. Overseas appointments have included Duncan Fletcher and Andy Flower from Zimbabwe, Trevor Bayliss from Australia and Brendon McCullum from New Zealand, whom Fleming has succeeded; Matthew Mott also led the white-ball team. England’s selector Marcus North is Australian, Leah Poulton was announced in September as managing director of England women, and Lisa Keightley was the England women’s head coach between 2020 and 2023.

Fleming’s backroom group, announced last week, is heavily weighted towards coaches with domestic experience: former England opener Marcus Trescothick, who was interim Test coach earlier this year, joins ex-England wicketkeeper James Foster and former spinner Richard Dawson. Jonathan Trott, an Ashes-winning member of the England setup, is about to begin a spell in charge of England Lions. Both Trott and Dawson had been considered for the Test job before Fleming’s appointment.

On BBC Radio 5 Live Fleming said: "I do believe that primarily the national team should be coached by a national representative." He added he intended to bring county coaches and past players into the international environment, saying: "There are some really key people who have come back into the system and I'm really pleased about that."

Fleming, who played for Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and Middlesex during his career, visited counties in September and said he plans to spend part of next summer observing county cricket ahead of the home Ashes series. "Yep, I'll be around and I really enjoyed this year getting to catch up," he said, noting many former team-mates are now in coaching or head roles at counties and that reconnecting gave him a feel for the domestic game.

England did not select a specialist spinner in any of the three Tests against Pakistan, instead using four frontline seamers, and in South Africa’s ongoing Test against Australia in Gqeberha Australia omitted Nathan Lyon despite his 573 Test wickets. Shoaib Bashir was named last week as the only specialist red-ball spinner on England’s list of fully centrally contracted players, with Mason Crane and Liam Patterson-White given development deals; Fleming described Bashir as representing "continuity" and said: "I acknowledge there's a raft of spinners just below that, that at times are putting their hand up." He added: "The team could look quite different and that's the horses for courses example."

Fleming did not take charge for the Pakistan series in August and September after his July appointment; his first assignment as Test head coach will be the three-match tour of South Africa in December and January, and the squad for that series is due to be named in the first week of November.