Rob Key’s remarkable rise is not just a case of a job for the boys

In between England’s ruinous Ashes campaign and the largely dismal epilogue in the Caribbean last month, a panel of Rob Key, Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain recorded a podcast for Sky in which they analysed the Test team’s myriad problems and discussed how they would change things.

Key, though supposedly steering the debate as host, was pressed for his views. After detailed responses that have been widely reported over the past few days and which included his belief that player power needs addressing, Atherton joked the only solution was to take charge of the England set-up himself. “The answer to that is no,” Key replied, amid chuckles from all three.

Fast forward a couple of months and, a bit like the old Bob Monkhouse joke about the first time he told people he wanted to be a comedian, they’re not laughing now. Key starts at the England and Wales Cricket Board on Tuesday as its new managing director of men’s cricket, having bounced from playing career to commentary box to one of the most influential positions in the sport.

On the face of it this is a remarkable rise and in some quarters – including Mark Ramprakash – viewed as possibly being a case of jobs for the boys. Certainly Key’s direct experience of sports administration is as thin as the field of candidates from which he emerged, such that the ECB comms team even cited his (admittedly always thought-provoking) Evening Standard column in Easter Sunday’s lunch-ruining announcement in a bid to flesh it out a touch.

But then there is a case to say that rather than Key’s lack of hours spent throwing to players in the nets, negotiating county contracts or arguing with groundsmen about the height of the mower blades being a hindrance, his time out of – or at least