Mark Alleyne: "I've got three or four years to really scratch my itch"

In late January, a photograph was doing the rounds on social media. England were in Barbados for a T20I series, and so too was Mark Alleyne. Mitt in one hand, sidearm in the other, kitted out in national-team attire was one of the country's great white-ball cricketers, back in his natural habitat.

At times, Alleyne is too humble – "I think it was born out of Covid," he tells The Cricketer, pointing to the expansion of coaching groups through the pandemic – but the reality is that he is more qualified than most to hold positions like this. For a fortnight, he worked among Eoin Morgan's support staff on a whistlestop tour that amounted to five matches in nine days.

To secure that role, he came through an interview stage, which involved meeting with Ashley Giles, then the man in charge, and Paul Collingwood, the interim limited-over coach.

He calls the whole experience "good fun", mucking in wherever he was required, which often meant working with those on the fringes and adding his hands to an endless stream of match preparation.

"It was more putting individuals in certain situations to see how they coped," he explains. "That was driven by them, and I had no input in that at all. It's their baby and they know what they're looking for.

"You know the number system that they use with the analyst? I was very intrigued to know exactly what it meant, but I didn't ask. I thought that I could possibly be working for someone else in October, and I could probably compromise their strategic stuff if I knew too much. I was curious but I thought not to delve too much!"

We are coming up to 15 years since Alleyne – one of Gloucestershire's most successful players of all time – coached his county to T20 Finals Day. He left before the following season had begun, and they only returned to those heights in 2020. Before coaching, he was a serial winner and – alongside Adam Hollioake – one of English domestic cricket's iconic limited-over captains. Between 1999 and 2000 alone, he won five titles.

But it has been a while, and quite simply it feels incredible that he has not been utilised more in the last decade, having instead spent seven years as MCC head coach and the time since as Marlborough College's cricket professional and, more recently, their assistant director of sport.

^{Alleyne returned to Gloucestershire in an interim capacity last summer (Harry Trump/Getty Images)}

So, as he rubbed shoulders with England's standard-setting white-ball stars, there was an element of relief to find out that the game he played at the top level – in 10 ODIs at the turn of the century –remains recognisable. "I was quite reassured," he laughs. "The fundamentals are pretty much the same. They go about their business in pretty much the same way, and I felt at ease with what's happening in the modern game."

Not that he has ever been too far away: his MCC role meant keeping abreast of the Second XI Championship, while he still watches plenty of county cricket as an England scout. "It doesn't feel like that many years out," he says. "I never felt away, as such."

Last summer, the departure from Gloucestershire of Richard Dawson saw Ian Harvey brought in as interim head coach, with Alleyne – whose face is the subject of a spray-painted mural at Bristol – his interim assistant. It reunited two club legends in a coaching capacity, though Alleyne admits now that the temporary, stopgap nature of the role made it "hard to overinvest your time" and feels as though the whole situation might have been handled better.

Over the winter, he was overlooked for the role of performance director, which ultimately went to Steve Snell, while Harvey's stint as head coach in 2021 meant that Alleyne "didn't want to challenge him" for the permanent job "out of respect". When Harvey dropped back into the assistant role he'd previously occupied under Dawson and opted not to put his hat in the ring, Alleyne getting the top job would have meant the head coach and assistant swapping roles.

"That didn't feel right," he reflects. "The players would have felt a bit confused." As it is, Dale Benkenstein is the new man at the helm.

Of the two jobs, however, strategy is where Alleyne sees his skillset best utilised: "I love coaching still, but I got a nice reminder last year that coaching in county cricket is relentless and a real grind, physically. I don't think it's using my expertise in the most thorough way. So, yes, I want to do both, but I think maybe a director of cricket role would be a better use of where I'm at. You just have to do the other bits that bridge that gap first."

Which is why his short stint with England instilled a renewed sense of confidence as much as anything else, having successfully navigated a recruitment process for a high-level gig. "It was a real boost, to be honest," he says.

Because, here's the thing – and this should come as a popular development: Alleyne is ready to go again at the top of the game. "I'm just about ready," he admits. "I feel as though I've got three or four years to really scratch my itch."

^{Alleyne was part of England's coaching staff for their tour of the Caribbean in January (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)}

For starters, it is believed that he will be involved in The Hundred later this summer.

Roles like that – short, sharp posts – might work best for the time-being, given a fierce loyalty that means he will not give up on Marlborough lightly and should allow him to juggle the two concurrently, as was the arrangement last summer. "The college here have been extremely supportive," he adds, "so I'm not just going to dump this role on a whim. It has to be something carefully planned out.

"I'm ambitious and want to operate at the top, but I can't sacrifice everything to make sure that happens. Cricket is quite strange in that they're big, chunky roles, but they don't necessarily give you the financial security to make that leap.

"But also, from a family perspective, trying to operate in two different locations, I did that before and it's quite tough. I gave it up to make sure that I could be there for my family. That's what I'm looking at now: the kids are coming out of school, so everything's a little bit easier. The youngest is 16, the eldest is 17. So, they're in school but by the time I'm in place with something, they'll be doing A-Levels.

"After a 22-year county career, there was a lot of guilt because it demands a lot of time away. At that time, I always felt the next phase would be family-first. But we're back in a position now where I don't think taking another role would affect family life as it would have done when the kids were young teenagers."

His former teammate, David Lawrence, was named as Gloucestershire's new president a fortnight ago, becoming the first black man to hold the post in the club's 152-year history. Speaking to The Cricketer upon his appointment, he stressed the importance of taking that opportunity: "If we keep turning down roles, then where do we start? You have to start somewhere. That's my biggest gripe. If you don't take the role, then don't moan when there are no black presidents."

That sense of responsibility has resonated with Alleyne. "It really is more difficult than I could imagine," he says. "I don't talk about it a lot because some people think you're ungrateful: one minute, you're moaning about opportunity, the next minute you're saying that you're only getting the opportunity because…"

His voice tails off, but his point is clear.

"I've tried to step back and look at it as a chance to showcase what you can do. I've got a nice platform, so I should use all the platforms I can to remind people of what I'm really good at. On the other side of that, there is a little bit of pressure. With the other black coaches who are down the pecking order in experience or qualification or whatever, I do feel a little bit of pressure that I need to accept these opportunities on their behalf, which sounds crazy. But that really is how it is.

^{Alleyne was a major part of a hugely successful Gloucestershire side at the turn of the century (Tom Shaw/Getty Images)}

"A lot of opportunities have come up recently, and I think mainly it's the fallout of a lot of stuff that's happened. I think they're openly trying to advertise roles rather than just offering it to someone because they're the closest person. So, that's opened up a bit more opportunity.

"But equally, and this is always difficult, as a black coach, people are aware of trying to have a more diverse group. I don't like it like that in a lot of ways, but it does play into my hands a little bit until we get some other guys Level Four-qualified and up and running with some experience.

"I almost don't feel as though I can turn down an opportunity when there are people moaning about opportunities. I am currently just rejigging my thoughts, and I need to see exactly where I need to be and where I want to go. But what I do know is that I'm still very much in love with the game; I like working at the highest level with elite cricketers."

Having been away from the game's forefront for so long, there were players on his England trip who were new to him as personalities, but that did not last long. He bonded with Phil Salt, for example, over their shared upbringing in Barbados – an aspect, interestingly, that Alleyne believes played into the hands of his application, with all five matches taking place on the island. He knew Moeen Ali from beforehand and had come across Jason Roy and Tom Banton. Likewise, Tymal Mills and Chris Jordan, while Jofra Archer – another of Barbados stock – joined up with the camp to continue his rehabilitation. David Payne, an unused squad member, offered a link back to Gloucestershire.

It seems fitting that Alleyne should have found himself back among England's white-ball unit; in a previous era, when English one-day cricket was mostly desperate, he was a rare innovator and the figurehead for Gloucestershire's reign as the most dominant county side of his generation.

Alleyne isn't the type to dine out on nostalgia, though – "It's always a tricky one," he acknowledges – and his keenness to reflect on his own career is outweighed by wanting to establish himself as a coach.

"The last thing you want to do is harp on about your playing days because people just see you as an ex-player, whereas I want to be defined as a coach."

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