England name Ed Smith as new national selector
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have appointed Ed Smith as their new national selector. Smith, who played three Tests for England, comes in with experience of 191 first-class matches and 134 List A games in a career that spanned over 12 years.
Smith's appointment comes after the ECB tweaked their approach to selecting players for the senior men's Test, ODI and T20I teams with an increased emphasis on scouting and assessing talents.
The 40-year-old will appoint a full-time independent England selector to work with him and England head coach Trevor Bayliss. The three-member panel will subsequently be assisted by a team of designated discipline-specific scouts, who will give the panel necessary inputs regarding the talent pool from across the country.
Smith said: "I’m delighted to take on the role of National Selector. I was very happy with what I was doing previously but the chance to be at the forefront of this development in English cricket was too good an opportunity to turn down.
"Selection and Talent ID have always fascinated me and I've explored extensively how they are evolving.
"It is an exciting time for England cricket. I'm very much looking forward to working with Trevor (Bayliss), Joe (Root) and Eoin (Morgan), as we work towards ensuring that the talent in English cricket feeds into consistent performances in all formats of the game."
"We’re excited about the changes we’ve made to our talent identification and selection structure. It’s about us getting better quality information, and making sure our decision-making is as clear and robust as possible," said Andrew Strauss, former England captain and the director of England cricket.
Backing Smith as the ideal candidate for the role, Strauss added: "Ed stood out as an ideal candidate for the role for a number of reasons. There is real depth to his talent identification knowledge and he’s done a great amount of research into the subject.
"He has a rich and varied sum of experiences having played professional cricket for 12 years and having written extensively on cricket and other sports. As well as this he has a strong academic interest in high performance and excellent knowledge of the international game."