Matthew Mott has won the race to be appointed coach of the England men’s white-ball team, ending seven years in charge of the Australian women’s side by signing a four-year contract to lead the reigning 50-over world champions, with his immediate focus on a return to his native country for this autumn’s Twenty20 World Cup.
Under his stewardship Australia’s women won consecutive T20 World Cups and one 50-over World Cup, went four Ashes series undefeated and triumphed in 26 successive one-day internationals, a record unmatched in either the men’s or women’s game. His task with England is to repeat his achievement of taking an outstanding team and making them near-unbeatable.
“What he has done with the Australia side, you could argue the England team are very much where they were when he took over,” said Rob Key, the managing director of England’s men’s cricket. “What he has done with the Australian women’s team is what will be asked of him to achieve for our men’s white-ball sides.”
Mott had previously coached New South Wales and Glamorgan as well as briefly working with England’s new red-ball coach, Brendon McCullum, at the Indian Premier League franchise Kolkata Knight Riders. In accepting the role he underlined the “deep connections” he has with the UK, where he had “spent considerable time both as a player and coach” and where some of his closest friends live.
“It was always going to take something special to leave the role that I have loved for the past seven years with the Australian women’s team,” the 48-year-old said. “However, I genuinely believe that the time is right to play a role in helping the England men’s ODI and T20 group continue to evolve as one of the best teams in the world.”
After his appointment last week McCullum said he had not been interested in the white-ball role because the team, ranked second in both 20- and 50-over formats, has been too successful since Eoin Morgan’s appointment as captain in 2015.
“The white ball didn’t interest me because the team is flying, they’re one of the best teams in the world,” he said. “I wasn’t really interested in a cushy kind of gig.” But Morgan will be almost 40 by the end of Mott’s contract and Key said the Australian would “be able to oversee any transition that the team will go through in the future”.
“I am fully aware that this team has been functioning well,” Mott said, “and part of my initial plan is to work with the playing group and support staff on how we can firstly maintain, then enhance, the success they have started to build over the past few years.”
The appointment, with Mott unanimously favoured by a selection panel of Key, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s outgoing chief executive, Tom Harrison, the strategic adviser, Andrew Strauss, and the performance director, Mo Bobat, means that both England’s red- and white-ball squads will be led by foreign coaches.
Rivals for Mott’s job included Paul Collingwood, who will remain part of the coaching team, the ECB’s elite performance pathway coach, Richard Dawson, the fast bowling coach, Jon Lewis, and Leicestershire’s Paul Nixon. Key said that part of Mott’s remit will be to “help us invest in English coaches, getting them as much experience as possible over the next few years”.
“His mentality and philosophy is completely aligned with what we want to do, and more importantly what that white ball side has done since the 2015 World Cup,” Key said. “The decision-making process was about someone who wasn’t going to come in and disrupt that environment.
“They have a very strong leader in Eoin Morgan, but whenever there is a transition in leadership, they are the right person to take it into the next era. That was the criteria we looked for and Matthew Mott come out at the top of the list for that.”