MAX MATHEWS: In the second major appointment of the week, the ECB have promoted from within to fill the Performance Director role. But will a focus on analytics pay dividends?
The 36-year-old former PE teacher from Leicester has been promoted from his position as player identification lead and replaces David Parsons, who left the post in July.
The sports science and management graduate, who joined the ECB in November 2011, is a certified level-four cricket coach and is currently working on a master's in sporting directorship at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Bobat said of his role: “I am looking forward to moving us closer to achieving our aim of being the most respected team in the world.
“The vision is that the strength of our counties and our high-performance system delivers deliberate and sustained success across all formats.”
These comments indicate they don’t just have the next series or tournament in mind – unlike the four-year, single-minded attention on the 2019 World Cup – but are aiming to lay the foundations for long-term success across all formats, including in the Test arena.
Like the Australian rebrand under PR-friendly skipper Tim Paine, referencing a desire to be the most respected aims to leave behind the win-at-all-costs mentality prevalent at the top of the game.
Formal titles can often be a little woolly, but broadly he will be working with Silverwood and national selector Ed Smith to ensure every men’s team is performing: Under-19s, Lions and senior level.
Silverwood, 44, himself only just promoted from bowling coach to the top job, clearly wants a consistent framework used across all age levels, which also balances present requirements with future plans.
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Managing the crossover between the ultra-attacking, carefree mindset which saw England win the 50-over World Cup and the gritty obduracy required in the Test arena will be key.
Jason Roy, for example, is one of the world’s best white-ball openers, but probably shouldn’t be batting higher than four in red-ball cricket, let alone playing for England’s Test side.
He will also be identifying the players with the most potential – in other words, considering who can handle the heat.
Youngsters will be encouraged to "learn and perform in all conditions around the world", suggesting recent uncapped call-ups Dom Sibley, Tom Banton, Saqib Mahmood and Matt Parkinson will be exposed early on to the rigours of international cricket.
Relationships between county and international cricket have not always been strong, with Yorkshire director of cricket Martyn Moxon blasting the ECB for their handling of spinner Adil Rashid in July last year.
Moxon said: “Our disappointment is not that Adil has been picked for England. Our disappointment is more the lack of communication and consultation we’ve had. We’ve employed Adil to play white-ball cricket and now he’s not available.”
Differing priorities can hinder joined-up thinking in cricket, but Silverwood and Bobat will know a strong county game breeds a strong international set-up, and more flies are caught with honey than vinegar.
Ed Smith and Chris Silverwood will be among those reporting to Mo Bobat
Test captain Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Jason Roy, Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes have all been rested for the T20 games in New Zealand after a gruelling summer of cricket.
Bobat has emphasised the national setup and counties will jointly make decisions in each player’s best long-term interests, with regards managing workloads and inevitable fatigue.
On the England U19 team’s four-week tour of India in 2017, he oversaw educational study groups and held one-to-one sessions to track progress, typical of his attention to detail and holistic approach to building a well-rounded player.
How mental health is handled could be interesting too – Marcus Trescothick, wicketkeeper-batsman Sarah Taylor and Jonathan Trott have all spoken about their personal difficulties with issues like anxiety and depression while on England duty.
As player identification lead, he outlined a selection structure for all men’s teams, ensuring the right quantity and quality of players made it onto the international pathway and into the England teams.
His notoriously analytical, data-driven approach used platform Smartabase to perform analytics on young cricketers, with communication across teams so no data needed to be transferred or was lost as players moved through the pathways.
"Multiple eyes, multiple times" is the England mantra: using an extensive scouting network with an intimate knowledge of the county game and vast, democratising swathes of data rather than relying on snap judgements and whims of a handful of individuals.
Each scouting report asks 25 questions, touching on strengths, weaknesses, the physical, the psychological, even how they celebrate in moments of team success.
Andrew Strauss' philosophy was key to Mo Bobat's spell as player identification lead
They also consider the relative age effect – some players can be 364 days older than someone in the same school year – deploy weighted averages to take context of performances into account, and assess character or ‘inner drive’.
Although it might be a stretch to call it a ‘moneyball’ approach, it is certainly studious, forward-thinking and aims to remove the innate, hard-wired biases of coaches and scouts which once dictated national selection.
In 2017, 209 players were scouted and specific 1,213 reports produced. In April 2018, Bobat was on the panel which appointed Ed Smith, and has attended every selection meeting since. This year, he has the chance to apply these principles at the highest level of English cricket.
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