Mickey Arthur has emphatically shut down any suggestions that he could become England 's new head coach, insisting the prospect "hasn't even crossed my mind".
England axed previous head coach Chris Silverwood following their embarrassing 4-0 defeat to Australia in the Ashes and Paul Collingwood has been installed as interim coach for the upcoming tour of the West Indies.
Arthur, 53, has a wealth of experience coaching international sides, having enjoyed stints as the head coach of South Africa, Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
He has recently been appointed as Derbyshire's head of cricket, but he had been tipped as a potential replacement for Silverwood, with former England bowler Dominic Cork naming him as an option the ECB should look at.
However, Arthur has distanced himself from the vacancy and is instead looking forward to his role at Derbyshire.
When asked if the England job was of interest to him, Arthur said: "Absolutely not. It hasn't even crossed my mind.
"I have just come out of 12 years of international cricket and I'm very comfortable with the project I've got at the moment.
"I don't think that my coaching career would have been fulfilled without a stint in county cricket."
And as he prepares for his first stint in county cricket, Arthur has hit back at some of the criticism England's current first-class structure has received in the wake of the Ashes.
England captain Joe Root notably claimed any success that players have on the international stage is "in spite of county cricket, not because of it", but Arthur feels that blaming county cricket for England's struggles is "far-fetched".
"County cricket has made a lot more players than it has broken," he said.
"In 2019 when England won the World Cup, nobody was questioning county cricket. When England won the Ashes in Australia in 2010–11, nobody questioned county cricket.
"In fact, they said it was because of county cricket. I was part of Western Australia at that point, and I got the Australian coaching job on the back of England going to Australia and whooping them.
"At that time, everybody was questioning the Sheffield Shield in Australia. It goes with the results in international cricket. So, to label it as county cricket’s fault is far-fetched.
"England simply haven't scored enough runs. If numbers one, two and three don't give you that foundation, you are always in a battle and I just think if you want to lay the blame somewhere, you can lay it right there."
