The stories and speculation about the England coaching job are still rife on the sports pages. Gary Kirsten's name as the "ideal candidate" is in most of them. It won't happen. Here's why.
Andy Flower was sacked by the ECB management, principally by Giles Clarke the Chairman. But out of respect for him it was announced that he had "stood down" (three weeks after he said on the record that he wouldn't !). Clarke even said that the Ashes defeat was not the reason for Flower's departure. A blatant bit of mendacity. It was further said that England wanted a single coach across all formats. Flower wasn't available for this so he had to resign. This was window dressing. Whilst one coach might make good sense there was no rush - after all Ashley Giles has only been in the Limited Overs job a short time.
Ashley Giles will get the England coach job. The logic will partly be that he is already part of the set up as One Day coach so if is logical to extend his brief. That he has conspicuously failed so far won't be mentioned! Giles Clarke likes people around him who are beholden to him. That means people who are insiders in the cosy world of county cricket. Clarke's head honcho David Collier is one such - they've been Tweedledum and Tweedledee for years now. Clarke doesn't like challenge. I once saw the estimable Gideon Haigh tear him apart at a conference and Clarke responded like the selectively truthful street fighter he is. Gideon wasn't bothered, but we saw Clarke warts and all that day !.
Giles Clarke has decided that Ashley Giles is his man. Unthreatening, A county stalwart. An insider. Can be manipulated. Wouldn't say boo to a goose. Or a Clarke.
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