The fact Silverwood's assistant Graham Thorpe dod not go is a surprise

The only surprise in Chris Silverwood’s sacking Thursday night as England coach was that his assistant Graham Thorpe did not go with him.

Clearly the ECB have decided only one of the many responsible for the worst of all Ashes debacles will leave at any one time. So the culling could last for some time yet.

And they clearly feel 7pm should be the hour of doom as it has brought bad news on successive days from a rudderless governing body who now find themselves without a chair, an England coach and with only an interim managing director in Andrew Strauss.

At least the former England captain is the one person to be trusted in an ECB that is unfit for purpose and Strauss will today step up a latest rescue operation that is even bigger than those he undertook when he became captain in 2009 and team director in 2015.

Strauss clearly does not muck about. His first act after taking over seven years ago was to sack Peter Moores as coach and now he has repeated the trick with Silverwood.

Both moves were greeted with sadness because they involved good English coaches with considerable success in county cricket. But both were completely justified.

Strauss will appoint a caretaker coach for a three-Test tour of the Caribbean that begins in just three weeks time before turning his attention to a permanent arrangement that, as revealed in Sportsmail on Thursday, will involve new red and white ball coaches.

There will also be a return of a national selector, with former England assistant coach and now Warwickshire director of cricket Paul Farbrace a prime candidate.

Alec Stewart remains the best option for the interim coaching role but there was also support on Thursday for Richard Dawson, already in Antigua as coach of the England