Australia’s Simon Katich has emerged as a strong contender to be a new England head coach.

Katich, 46, is the current head coach of Manchester Originals in the Hundred and has held a number of positions in the Indian Premier League, including as Royal Challengers Bangalore head coach from 2019-21.

During his playing career, Katich represented Australia in 56 Test matches, scoring 10 centuries. He is also well-versed in the English domestic game, after playing for five counties – Durham, Yorkshire, Hampshire, Derbyshire and Lancashire – as an overseas player.

While his coaching career has so far been dominated by white-ball cricket, Katich’s playing credentials were strongest in the first-class game. He scored 58 first-class centuries, averaging 52.8, in a career that spanned from 1995-2014.

Katich is regarded as a tough and tenacious coach, in keeping with his style during his playing career. Should England decided to split the head coaching role, and appointed separate red and white-ball coaches, Katich could be a contender for either job, but appears much likelier to be the red-ball coach.

While he was a pundit, Rob Key, England’s new managing director of men’s cricket, stressed his belief that the white and red-ball head coaching jobs should now be split.

Katich’s batting expertise, and track record of playing long innings, could be valuable in helping the development of England’s young batting line-up, with Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope and Dan Lawrence all proving inconsistent in their early forays in the Test game.

Alongside his coaching career, Katich has also been a broadcaster since his retirement from playing. He recently commentated alongside Key on Australia’s tour of Pakistan and is understood to be close to the new managing director.

Strauss in line for ECB chief exec role with Kalifa favourite for chairman post

By Nick Hoult

Ron Kalifa is the favourite to be the next chairman of the England & Wales Cricket Board and his appointment could pave the way for Sir Andrew Strauss to be the new chief executive.

Kalifa has led the nominations committee searching for a replacement for Ian Watmore, who stood down in October. But after a lengthy recruitment process and interviews last week, the board failed to agree on a new chair. Kalifa was always considered a strong candidate himself with several county chairs and ECB figures pushing him to stand and The Cricketer reported on Friday that he has finally been persuaded to change his mind. 

Kalifa has a strong working relationship with Strauss and insiders have indicated that the two could come as a pair to take over the running of English cricket.

There were attempts to persuade Strauss to stand himself as chairman of the board and he recently stood in as interim director of England men’s cricket, appointing Rob Key to the role last week.

He has previously indicated he does not want a full-time job in cricket but the chief executive role is highly paid and, unlike the director of cricket position, would be a new challenge for Strauss.

Harrison is hopeful of completing a new broadcast deal before he leaves office with Telegraph Sport revealing in January he was in negotiations over a new 10-year contract with Sky. If he completes that deal it would change the role of the next chief executive with less emphasis on the commercial side and more on direction and leadership for the game, which would suit Strauss’s experience.

Kalifa has been an ECB board member since 2020. He is a director of the Bank of England and a non-executive director of Transport for London. The ECB gave him permission to invest in the Rajasthan Royals IPL franchise last year, but he later sold those shares as a potential conflict of interest.

If Kalifa agrees to stand he will have to recuse himself from the nominations committee that will make a recommendation to the ECB board, delaying his appointment at a time when the game is lacking leadership.