If there is any level of surprise at the appointment of Chris Silverwood as England head coach, perhaps we have not been listening closely enough to Ashley Giles.
For all the talk of Gary Kirsten seeming like a shoo-in as recently as the beginning of last week, Giles – the man primarily responsible for the hiring of the new man – has been open with his vision since he became director of cricket last December.
He said he had a preference for appointing an Englishman and then talked up Silverwood’s credentials in February.
Does that mean that Silverwood, who for the best part of two years was fast-bowling coach under Trevor Bayliss, is the right man for the top job?
Some might be underwhelmed at the decision to promote from within, feeling that England’s stagnant Test team is crying out for a fresh voice.
Silverwood does not come with the international pedigree of South African Kirsten, who led his nation to number one in the Test rankings and was in charge of India when they won the 2011 World Cup.
Neither does he have the standing in the game of Alec Stewart, the former England captain who may well have got the job had he not withdrawn from the reckoning late in the recruitment process.
It is Surrey director of cricket Stewart who has helped oversee the development of the likes of Rory Burns, Dom Sibley, Ollie Pope and Sam Curran, on whom the future of the England Test team may be built.
However, 44-year-old Silverwood, who played six Tests for England between 1996 and 2002, does come with an outstanding record in domestic cricket.
When he took temporary charge of Essex, promoted from assistant coach upon the departure of Paul Grayson, they sat sixth in Division Two of the County Championship.
The final month of the 2015 season saw them climb to third and was enough to convince a panel that included former England captain Graham Gooch to give Silverwood the job on a full-time basis.
In 2016, Essex were promoted from Division Two. In 2017, they were crowned county champions for the first time in 25 years.
And, even though Silverwood took up his post with England in early 2018, Essex have built on what he put in place.
Now under Anthony McGrath, this season they did the double of the County Championship and the T20 Blast.
Perhaps a foreign name would have been sexier – there seems to be an attitude across British sport that overseas achievements carry more weight than those on these shores – but Silverwood has done as much as anyone currently working in the English game to prove himself worthy of
leading the national team.
