Reports: James Anderson, Stuart Broad set to be offered player-coach from ECB

The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has reportedly planned to reward their pace bowling icons James Anderson and Stuart Broad with dual roles of player-coaches. The cricket board has taken this decision considering that the pace duo has been very efficient and consistent with the ball in the longest format. 

Notably, both Anderson and Broad decided to sacrifice their respective white-ball careers after the 2015 World Cup which was also their last major ICC tournament in order to prolong their red-ball careers. The star pacers have been performing well individually and collectively in the last few years.

McCullum wants a streamlining of the support staff within the Test environment: Reports

“McCullum is known to want a streamlining of the support staff within the Test environment, and with Lewis returning to work within the ECB’s pathway system, it would mean a duo who have shared 997 Test wickets when playing together grooming their successors," said a report in Daily Mail.

“Paul Collingwood, Marcus Trescothick and Jeetan Patel appear set to continue as assistants with the Test team, while Matthew Mott has recruited David Saker and Mike Hussey for the next two months of limited-overs cricket," said the report.

Ever since Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes have been at the helm of affairs as the Test coach and captain of the Three Lions, they have suffered just one defeat in the home series so far. Even though England have shown a late resistance, they do not stand a chance to make the final of the next year's ICC World Test Championship (WTC) at home. 

Meanwhile, James Anderson and Stuart Broad have only been growing from strength to strength with the passage of time. While Anderson has 667 Test scalps to his tally, Broad is currently at 566. In fact, Stuart surpassed the Australian pace legend Glenn McGrath's Test tally of 563 wickets during the recently-concluded third and final Test match against South Africa at The Oval.