Rob Key confirms he is in the running for the role of ECB’s new Managing Director

After Alec Stewart pulled himself out of the contention on Wednesday (March 23), Rob Key is the latest contender to take the position of England’s new Managing Director. After a massive downfall at the Ashes this year, Ashley Giles was taken down from the Managing Director’s position last month, and Andrew Strauss filled the position on an interim basis.

Strauss, who was undertaking the role of the Managing Director till 2018, was assigned the task of filling in the position with a permanent recruit. It has come to notice that Rob Key’s name has emerged to take the responsibilities. The former England batter and Sky Sports commentator represented his country in 15 games between 2002 to 2005 in the Test format. His highest score came up against the West Indies at the iconic Lord’s in the year 2004.

He also led Kent for nine seasons till 2015 and has been a popular name in the sport. Though his candidacy came out of nowhere, a report, by the Evening Standard, suggested that his name was included, amongst others, in the list of interviewees. The other names in the list are that of Ed Smith, the former National Selector of the team, Marcus North, Director of Cricket at Durham, and Tom Moody, Director of Cricket at Sri Lanka.

‘Lifestyle’ conditions will play a major factor in Key’s decision

“There’s a lot of speculation around… there’s a lot of jobs up for grabs in English cricket,” Key was quoted as per ESPNcricinfo. “A fair few people have been asked, a fair few people are going for these jobs. The thing I have is that you have to weigh up how much golf you can get in doing some of these. For me, the lifestyle thing is the big issue,” he added.

Key is currently 42, and he suffered a transient ischaemic attack two years ago, as a result, will look into the responsibilities before taking up the role full-time. After recovering from stroke, he had mentioned that he would look into why it happened to him at that age.

Strauss, the interim Managing Director, commented on why he is unlikely to take up the position, again, full time. He said: “I haven’t considered that really. I’ve got unique personal circumstances that make doing that role difficult and quite frankly there’s always value in getting a new perspective and new views. Nothing ever stays the same or goes backward. I’m certain there’s going to be some good candidates for this role.” ECB invited applications on March 14, with the due date being March 27.