England head coach Chris Silverwood is sacked by ECB after Ashes failure

Chris Silverwood has been sacked following England’s disastrous Ashes campaign, with the head coach departing after team director Ashley Giles was dismissed on Wednesday.The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has removed Silverwood after reviewing recommendations from a panel that included Andrew Strauss, who has taken over from team director Giles on an interim basis, and the governing body’s chief executive, Tom Harrison, following the 4-0 series defeat.

Giles met the ECB’s board of directors on Wednesday morning and was told his three-year spell in charge of the national team was terminated. Both men have paid the price for Test results that produced only one win from the team’s past 14 outings and ended with the failure in Australia.

Silverwood insisted he was “the right man for the job” on multiple occasions as England’s attempt to regain the Ashes floundered within 12 days and they subsequently concluded their third consecutive tour Down Under without winning a Test. The ECB has yet to announce a decision on the batting coach, Graham Thorpe.

Amid batting travails, questionable selections and tactical errors, Giles had publicly sought to blame exhausting scheduling and Covid bubbles for the poor performances. But following the panel’s review, and with a Test squad needing to be picked for the forthcoming tour of the Caribbean next week, the end has come swiftly on Silverwood’s two-year tenure.

More details to follow