Five key issues Ed Smith must address as England’s new national selector

Ed Smith is due to be unveiled as England’s new national selector on Friday, and it’s fair to say that he is going to be very busy man.

Smith has come from left field and appears to have beaten Andy Flower to the top job, while Mick Newell, the Nottinghamshire director of cricket, also came close. Confirmation is expected on Friday and Smith was unable to comment when contacted by Standard Sport.

Smith has had a varied career. He played three Tests in 2003, captained Middlesex and then retired, aged 31. He has written books and worked as a journalist and commentator on the game and beyond, while also dabbling in academia. He commentated for Test Match Special on this winter’s Ashes.

But what awaits England’s new guy?

Our cricket correspondent, Will Macpherson, identifies five key areas for the new man to address...

Throw everything at the role

Sure, this sounds obvious, but Smith has garnered a reputation as something of a polymath who pops up all over the place - author, journalist, speaker, commentator, advisor to Royal Challengers Bangalore, academic - that it is easy to forget he was ever even a cricketer. Selecting the England team needs to be his sole professional focus, and will require much trawling through footage, travelling the shires and gauging players’ readiness. It requires absolute commitment.

Get your relationships right

Smith must get his network of eyes and ears exactly right. He needs senior county pros (Jonathan Trott and Marcus Trescothick, for instance), umpires, coaches from the ECB (Graham Thorpe) and the counties (Essex coach Anthony McGrath) and people like James Taylor, too. He must also build a strong rapport with England’s head coach Trevor Bayliss (right), who is broadly unable to improve his poor knowledge of county cricket. The two could hardly be more different but must instantly find a way to get on.

Be informed by data, not ruled by it

Candidates were asked by Andrew Strauss, the head of England cricket, to present on whether selection is an art or a science. Smith is likely to fall closer to the latter camp, but the real answer is surely that it is somewhere in between. Cricket is finally getting to grips with how exactly to use its many numbers and Smith is mates with Nathan Leamon, who worked with England and developed CricViz, the analytics app. Use such tools, sure, but look at people and personalities, too.

Don’t make changes for the sake of it

England’s Test cricketers have had a horrible winter, and there is much that needs to change — fast and spin bowling and batting big — over time. But five defeats in seven Tests this winter does not mean the current mob should be discarded without thought. Is there anyone better? Are they going to come good? Bear in mind that Jonny Bairstow took 22 Tests to make a century but is now a fixture.

Embrace unorthodoxy

There is a school of thought that Smith’s namesake, Steve, would never have flourished if he had been brought up in England, the birthplace of his mother, Gillian. He is just too unorthodox and too weird. There are many young batsmen, like Ben Duckett and Dan Lawrence, whose techniques are not flawless but who make runs. Do not be afraid of their unorthodoxy. Who knows what it may bring?