England have removed the head coach Chris Silverwood, after the team’s shoddy performance in the men’s Ashes series. Silverwood departed just a day after his old boss, Ashley Giles, was removed as managing director of England men’s cricket as well. Andrew Strauss, the new interim director of cricket, will replace him and will be the coach for the next Test tour of the West Indies imminent.
“During his time in the role Chris has given absolutely everything to make a success of it. He is a man of great integrity, who players and staff alike have enjoyed working with,” ECB CEO Tom Harrison said. “Under Chris, England Men’s white ball teams have been ranked first and second in the world while he also led the Test team to a number of series wins including away in South Africa and Sri Lanka. He has led the England Men’s team with great resilience and empathy through an incredibly challenging period for English cricket, and he deserves our sincere thanks and gratitude.”
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Chris Silverwood, however, joined the team as the bowling coach in January 2018 after having led Essex to the County Championship in the previous summer. He then replaced Trevor Bayliss as the head coach following the summer of 2019 where England won the World Cup but they were unable to win the Ashes.
Under him, England won a Test series in South Africa and also won the home series against West Indies and Pakistan in 2020 and then in Sri Lanka at the turn of 2021 as well. But the pandemic and the bio-bubble saw them managing the players’ workloads and England didn’t always play with their strongest XI at all times and lost a record nine Tests in the calendar year, including series defeats versus India, New Zealand and Australia as well.
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“The last two years have been very demanding but I have really enjoyed my time with the team and working with Rooty and Morgs, and I am very proud of this group considering the challenges. I leave with fond memories and I am now looking forward to spending some quality time at home with my family and embracing the next chapter. It’s been an absolute honour to be England Head Coach, and I’m extremely proud to have worked alongside our players and staff. I want to thank them all for the hard work and commitment they have given during my time in the role and I wish them all the very best moving forward,” Chris Silverwood concluded.
