TCCB_EMBUREY_ENG_COACH_26MAR1996

TCCB look to Emburey or Lloyd as England coach

BY CHRISTOPHER MARTIN-JENKINS

DAVID LLOYD, of Lancashire, or John Emburey, late of Middlesex and shortly to be coach of Northamptonshire, is likely to be offered the chance to become England`s new cricket coach during the next 24 hours.

The executive committee of the Test and County Cricket Board meet at Lord`s today to discuss the winter`s cricket and its unsavoury aftermath, and a fresh coach - officials will rightly be wary of calling him manager - seems certain to chosen.

Ray Illingworth, retained as chairman of selectors for the coming season only because those counties who tried to oust him backed a horse who turned out to be a non-runner, is understood to have told the TCCB chairman, Dennis Silk, that "in view of the hue and cry" he would prefer to work with a younger, part-time, coach this season.

Illingworth would have preferred the appointment to have been made after the report of David Acfield`s inquiry into the selection and management of the England team, which is not due until late July.

The outcome of today`s meeting is unpredictable, as was the case last year when Illingworth`s brief was extended and Keith Fletcher summarily paid off.

Those meeting at Lord`s this morning will be Silk, A. C. Smith, the TCCB`s chief executive, Tony Baker (Hampshire), Lawrence Byford (Yorkshire) Doug Insole (Essex), Duncan Fearnley (Worcestershire), Acfield (chairman of cricket), Brian Downing (chairman of marketing) and Michael Murray (chairman of finance).

The chances are that they will appoint a temporary coach. If he makes a promising start in the coming series against India and Pakistan, the new man would take over as manager for next winter`s tours of Zimbabwe and New Zealand.

Illingworth`s recommendation is believed to be Emburey, who coached England`s successful A tour of Pakistan while all was still going reasonably well for the senior side in South Africa.

Attempts were still being made yesterday to unseat Illingworth altogether, on the grounds that he has lost the confidence of the captain and other England players.

His predecessor as England A coach, Phil Neale, and the England under-19 coach, the ebullient Lloyd, will have support too. Mike Atherton recently told The Daily Telegraph that he would like to work with his fellow-Lancastrian.

The rapid downturn of fortune, which began with South Africa`s last-wicket stand in the Cape Town Test, has turned public opinion, already soured by his public undermining of Devon Malcolm, against Illingworth, and, incidentally, against Atherton too. The captain will survive, rightly so, for all his poor public image, but the supremo will not.

Illingworth always understood that he would be accountable for failure. He had the managerial side of his job thrust upon him, albeit willingly, by the executive committee exactly a year ago when Keith Fletcher was made the scapegoat for defeat in Australia. Then, as now, the real problems ran deeper, into the whole structure of English cricket.

Attempts were still being made yesterday to unseat Illingworth altogether, on the grounds that he has lost the confidence of the captain and other England players. Surrey representatives were canvassing other counties to see whether the withdrawal of their candidate, David Graveney, necessarily means that Illingworth will remain chairman until he returns to his retirement in Spain at the end of the coming season.

Surrey`s chairman, Mike Soper, said: "People forget that ours was not a pro- Graveney vote; it was an anti-Illingworth vote." His chief executive, Paul Sheldon, added: "If we make no change it will be taken as an endorsement of what went on in the winter."

Surrey may not be alone in believing that a new chairman of selectors - Ian Botham and Mark Nicholas are among those who will certainly be considered next year and may be among those nominated for this year`s committee - would make an immediate difference.

It is a naive view, however. Most selectors would come up with more or less the same England team. The England coach, if he is to provide the motivation, and the technical and strategic direction, is a more important appointment. That of a visionary new chief executive of the Board is even more fundamental to any hope of long-term improvement.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)