Nasser Hussain believes Rob Key is the right man to take England forward after being appointed managing director of the men's team.
Key, who will relinquish his punditry role with Sky Sports to take up the position, joins at a time with England seeking a new Test captain following Joe Root's decision to step down and a permanent head coach, and is excited to be entrusted with this responsibility.
There's plenty for the 42-year-old to get stuck into, and here, Nasser runs through the immediate issues on the to-do-list.
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'An excellent choice...a very good cricket brain'
I'm very pleased for Rob and I think the ECB have made an excellent choice. I don't know who the other candidates were, but I've worked with Rob for the last six years and even though at times he plays the fool, he's no fool.
There are times he has said things on air or at the back of the box and you think 'this lad knows his cricket'. He is absolutely a cricket man from top to bottom; his daughter plays in the Kent age groups, he's played for and captained Kent, and he's played for England.
I think England have made a good choice, he's an excellent cricket man and he's got a very good cricket brain.
People, once they've met Rob, worked with him and understood him, know he's got a lot of good ideas on the game and he's not afraid to put his head above the parapet or of taking a different view from somebody else.
He'll stand up for what he believes in and to a degree he's stubborn with that, but I like that stubbornness and he won't be swayed - and I think that's what this role needs. People will come out with hundreds of ideas, but what you need is someone with crystal clear direction, not swayed by pundits, newspapers and media.
'Major decisions' to make first up
The short-term has to be the two or three major decisions he has to make. I think the coach is a very important one because they have to decide the captain, but you want the coach's input on who he feels the captain should be.
I'd probably say coach first, although I would make a journey up the A1 to speak to Ben Stokes to see where he is mentally, physically, and if he wants the job and feels he's in the right place to do the job as England captain - but you'd also want the coach's input.
Another major decision is selection: Is he going to go back to the selection committee as it was previous to the Silverwood-Root era where the coach and captain select the side?
Is he going to split the coaches with having a one-day coach and a Test match coach? Then there's keeping the ball rolling in white-ball cricket as well. Part of the reason where we are now is that white-ball reset, which got us to win the World Cup, saw us take our eye off the red ball and we find ourselves bottom of the World Test Championship.
So, let's not go the other way and just focus on red-ball cricket. Speak to Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler about how we keep improving the white-ball side as well. Those are the short-term, very important decisions he has to get right.
However, he knows you only get that right with the ingredients coming through and the county set-up, and I know Rob is deeply passionate about county cricket - he was texting me two weeks ago about some young players he was watching.
I can guarantee you he'll be watching a feed of a county game. He loves county cricket and that is going to be vital to the ingredients coming through to the Test team.
The wider challenges facing Key
I've already seen tweets and comments about 'jobs for the boys' and those asking how administration he has actually done previously? It is an administrative role, that is correct, but I'd rather have a cricket person as MD of cricket, someone who understands the game, as opposed to someone who can do an excellent PowerPoint presentation. He will have to work on the administrative side.
He is very friendly with the players, and the players will be pleased that Rob Key is the new MD of England, but he's going to have to be tough with the players, and he will have to say no to the players at times.
He turned to me about a year ago and asked: 'How many things has Ashley Giles said no to? Other than taking football away from warm-ups, what else has he said no to?'
Rob Key will have to find out soon that he will have to be unpopular times. Leadership is not a popularity contest, he's going to have to say to the players and coaches at times: no, we are not going that way.
I am absolutely certain, from what I know of Rob Key - he plays the fool, but he's no fool, he's a very smart cookie.
The candidates for England coach
We can all wax lyrical about who we want as captain and coach, but it depends on who is available. Some of the foreign coaches have lucrative IPL gigs, would they be willing to give that up?
The England white-ball team have Morgan in charge, and you could even argue in three or six months' time, Buttler could take over the captaincy and Morgan could end up a captain of the white ball side. I see no problem with that at all, Morgan is a fantastic leader of men.
But the Test match side are underachieving, they need a bit of a kick up the backside and a change in culture. The ingredients are there: we are not the best side in the world, but there is no way we are the worst side in the world and that's exactly where we sit.
Those candidates could be Gary Kirsten, Ricky Ponting, Justin Langer, Mark Robinson.
That's one thing Andrew Strauss did well early, he got those big decisions right. He stuck with Morgan, he brought in Trevor Bayliss, he got that absolutely spot on.
The next three or four decisions Key makes will be vital for the future of our cricket.