Ed Smith confirmed as England selector in job ‘too good to turn down’

Ed Smith, the former cricketer, broadcaster and journalist, has been confirmed as England’s new national selector and will now head up a restructured scouting system for identifying the best players in the country.

The 40-year-old replaces James Whitaker in the top role and will be given licence to appoint a deputy to sit alongside himself and the head coach, Trevor Bayliss, on a new three-man panel that picks the men’s national teams.

Smith said: “I was very happy with what I was doing previously but the chance to be at the forefront of this development in English cricket was too good an opportunity to turn down. Selection and talent ID have always fascinated me and I’ve explored extensively how they are evolving.”

This move to shake up the selection process, which will involve a network of discipline-specific scouts being deployed in the county game and an increased emphasis on analytics, has been led by the director of England cricket, Andrew Strauss, who played with Smith at Middlesex.

Strauss said: “It’s about us getting better quality information and making sure our decision-making is as clear and robust as possible. Ed will come to this role with fresh ideas and his input will help us implement a structure that we hope can become world-leading, not just in cricket but in sport generally.”

Smith, who played three Tests for England in 2003 and 191 first-class matches in a 12-year playing career at Middlesex and Kent, will step down from his roles as a Test Match Special commentator and Sunday Times columnist.

As well as writing for the New Statesman, Smith was previously a columnist for ESPNcricinfo but his time with the website ended in 2016 after an article on stress in sport that editor Sambit Bal said “bore striking similarities” to elements of a piece in the Economist by another writer.

Angus Fraser and Mick Newell, the respective cricket directors at Middlesex and Nottinghamshire, are expected to leave their part-time selector roles, with Strauss keen to remove perceived conflicts of interest in the set-up.