Rob Key: wrapped up in cricket’s cosy world but still England’s figure of hope

At lunchtime on a slow-burn third day of this second Test, the kind of day when for long periods cricket simply happens quietly, waiting to happen more urgently, a sudden splash of colour appeared on the Old Trafford outfield.

Rob Key looked radiant in front of the Sky TV cameras, wedged like a ripe Kent spartan apple between Kumar and Wardey, looking slim and fit in ice-white trainers and executive knitwear, here to talk about the things that need to be talked about – the review of the review, the scheduling of schedule, mate, all that – three months into his role as English cricket’s managing director.

And why not look pleased with life? This was a good day to be out there presenting on the state of the nation. Old Trafford was boisterously full. England were on the way to winning this match and extending a live Test series into the second week of September. The Hundred is definitely on the TV a lot. Zak Crawley got 38 the other day. The high-performance review has proved, largely due to its almost total lack of any really clear edges, impossible to get too worked up about either way.

And Key remains a fascinating figure at the helm of this period of change: a man whose popularity is based on his likable spade-calling, asked now to front up for an organisation that communicates almost entirely in double-speak and spin; a state school north Kent bloke in a sport where the main challenge is to break down barriers to entry, who was nonetheless appointed by a cartel of mates and pals.

For all that he remains a credible, hopeful figure. In a sport that has no credible vision or idea of what its future might look like, here at least is someone who seems to carry no obvious personal agenda, to want what broadly passes for the