Mickey Arthur: England have missed a trick in transition away from James Anderson and Stuart Broad

It is a significant coup for Derbyshire to have enticed a head coach with the experience and calibre of Arthur. The challenges for a small county with a small squad of only 19 players are significant. They have not won a trophy since 2012, when they topped division two of the County Championship, and before that it was 1993, when they won the Benson & Hedges Cup. Moreover, they have not produced an England Test player since Dominic Cork in 2002.

“The county has underperformed for a number of years,” Arthur, who has just arrived in the UK to take his new role, says. “I’ve told the players that. I hate losing and I will be talking about winning and instilling that every day we’re together as a squad.” There will be no more coasting along using the excuse of being a “smaller county”, then — Arthur’s belief is that Derbyshire can sit at the top table.

Arthur, 53, has an impressive CV and a no-nonsense approach to management. He coached South Africa from 2005 to 2010 and was the coach of Australia from 2010 until his sacking in June 2013. Then, from 2016 to 2019, he coached Pakistan and was Sri Lanka’s head coach from December 2019, up until his resignation late last year.

All of those have been challenging positions and Arthur is no stranger to difficult decisions. In his time he has had to manage big characters, some difficult administrators and made some unpopular selection decisions. His views on the axing of Stuart Broad and James Anderson from England’s Test squad come with a tinge of bitter experience.

“I’ve had to do similar with my international teams [phasing out senior players],” he says. “This process with Stuart and Jimmy should have started a little while ago. I think it’s very drastic to do it now, all in one swoop.

“They have obviously decided they want to go with a young new Test squad. Those two are unbelievable cricketers but clearly, they are not going to be around for ages, so I think England have missed a trick and should have started the phasing out process a little bit earlier, which probably would have culminated going into this English summer and them departing with the respect they deserve. Now it is just bang, ‘That’s it’.

“Whether they play in the summer will be up to the new director of cricket and head coach, but you are throwing them a hospital pass. They have to make the ultimate decision and that seems unfair — the process should have started earlier and should have been communicated better.”

English cricket is, as always, doing some soul-searching after another Ashes defeat and there is to be a comprehensive and independent review of county cricket which will involve consultation with the counties. It is Arthur’s strong belief, though, that county cricket is not to blame for England’s poor Test performances in the past 18 months.

“England haven’t scored enough runs. It’s as simple as that,” he says. “If you want to lay the blame, you can lay it right there. County cricket isn’t to blame.”

Participation in the Indian Premier League is also a huge issue for English cricket, Arthur believes. “For so long county cricket has been a really good producer of international players,” he says. “I don’t think there’s a problem with the system, I really don’t. If you want the strength early season, unfortunately you are going to have to stop the players going to the IPL.

“They are playing there in the early part of the season just before the first Tests. You need your best players playing county cricket preparing for that. It’s not the counties’ fault, it’s not the players’ fault. Good luck having those conversations with the players though.”

Arthur’s most immediate priority is getting Derbyshire back to winning ways and to ensure that the “loyal Derbyshire fan base” want to come and watch their county. He is not a fan of rest and rotation and believes that you should pick your best team to win the matches in front of you. It is, perhaps, a mantra that should be adopted by the England management too.

“Rotation is a swear word to me,” he says. “I’m just not a fan of planning too far ahead and planned rest and rotation. I think you just get yourself in a mess if you try and plan too far ahead. I don’t think you should be changing every game. I have always said, ‘This is my best team,’ going into a Test or international match, and it rarely works out that way, because of injuries or other things. So rest and rotation tends to come fairly naturally and if you plan too far ahead in cricket, you get yourself in a bit of trouble.”

Might Arthur have been tempted by the vacant England head coach role, had he not already taken this job at Derbyshire?

“Absolutely not,” Arthur says emphatically. “It hasn’t even crossed my mind. I have just come out of 12 years of international cricket and I’m very comfortable with the project I’ve got at the moment.”

– The Times