Chris Silverwood’s fate as England coach will be decided by an ECB board meeting taking place on Tuesday.
Silverwood is expected to be the fall guy from England’s 4-0 Ashes series defeat in Australia ahead of the tour to West Indies later this month.
England team director Ashley Giles submitted a report from the debacle Down Under to former England captain Andrew Strauss as chair of the cricket committee.
Strauss was today putting his recommendations to the board on how to reshape England’s fortunes at Test cricket with Silverwood the most likely to carry the can after the tourists were completely outclassed by Australia.
Silverwood could be axed with immediate effect, given a reprieve or merely left temporarily in charge for the West Indies series, for which England’s squad leave on February 24, before being replaced.
His exit in the coming days is seen as the likeliest outcome, with assistant coach Graham Thorpe another potential casualty.
Joe Root is likely to stay on as Test captain for the foreseeable future with an interim coaching team, led possibly by Surrey director of cricket Alec Stewart or another of Silverwood’s assistant coaches Paul Collingwood, for the duration of the Caribbean tour. That would give more time to finding a longer-term candidate as head coach.
