England: Andrew Strauss wants new Test coach in place by start of summer

Sir Andrew Strauss admits England are racing a “ticking clock” as they look to find the right people to lead the Test side into a new “bold and ambitious” era.

Strauss is currently minding the shop for the England and Wales Cricket Board following Ashley Giles’ sacking as managing director, with a job advert for that position going live on Monday.

The search will be conducted by headhunters SRI Executive, with the successful candidate’s first task being the appointment of a new coaching and selection group.

And, with a jam-packed international summer getting underway on June 2, there is plenty to do to complete a wholesale overhaul of the backroom team that is likely to see applicants from across the world.

“We are making progress with it and we’re obviously very conscious there’s a ticking clock, both in terms of appointing a director of cricket and then of course the coach – or potentially coaches – on the back of that,” said Strauss.

“The ambition is certainly to have the Test coach in place by that first Test of the summer. In recruitment there are all sorts of moving pieces, including notice periods and I don’t think we can categorically say that, but it’s the ambition.”

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While that process continues, Strauss is forging ahead with the first steps of a high-performance review of English cricket.

The need for a wide-reaching investigation into the structures and county system that underpin the sport became apparent after Test side floundered in Australia, the culmination of a poor year for the flagship team that gave rise to the catch-all term ‘red-ball reset’.

Strauss, who is in Barbados with the squad for this week’s Test against the West Indies, attempted to flesh out