Smith's appointment took me by surprise... I hope science and statistics do not entirely replace instinct

HUW TURBERVILL: New National Selector Ed Smith won just three Test caps. Does that matter? Attracting the biggest names in the game is something cricket fans just have to accept these days

^{Ed Smith is the new ECB National Selector}

Anybody who argued that outgoing chief selector James Whitaker did not have enough Test caps for the job must be delighted with Ed Smith’s appointment… he has three times the number.

OK, I admit I am being a bit facetious. The 40-year-old, whose appointment is expected to be announced any minute now, won three Test caps, all in the summer of 2003. He started off well with 64 in his first Test innings against South Africa at Trent Bridge, mustered only 23 runs in his next four and was not seen again.

Does that matter?

Attracting the biggest names in the game is something cricket fans just have to accept these days.

Sky pay the big bucks to the top candidates, Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain, and before them David Gower and Sir Ian Botham. Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting have been selectors before with varying results. Angus Fraser has decided to stay with Middlesex. Mick Newell was not allowed to carry on as selector and Notts’ director of cricket, although he could still decide to be Smith’s No.2.

The last few national selectors, or chairman of selectors as the role was known before, were either not great international cricketers, or international cricketers at all. Whitaker was restricted to one Test cap on the triumphant 1986/87 Ashes tour.

^{Smith is known to be a deep thinker}

Geoff Miller had a good solid international career (with a very good record bowling in Australia, in 1978/79 and 1982/83), and enjoyed success in the role. David Graveney did not play international cricket but was sound in the job, benefitting greatly from the introduction of central contracts.

There were international ‘stars’ in the role before that, but these were not wildly successful times we are talking about. Ray Illingworth was a great England captain, but it is widely acknowledged that he took on the supremo role about 10 years too late.

Ted Dexter’s stint was entertaining if nothing else, with references to ‘Malcolm Devon’, and ruminations about how he would “be looking at the whole question of facial hair”, and if “we may be in the wrong sign… Venus may be in the wrong juxtaposition with somewhere else.”

Peter May was one of England’s greatest batsmen, and in those days rather than working for Sky, such men would run English cricket. But his tenure from 1982–1988 was, frankly, a bit of a disaster (wins in India and Australia, and a home Ashes victory aside).

It was like playing pin the tail on the donkey, with players and captains discarded as wantonly as Zsa Zsa Gabor shed husbands. Considering it was the era of Gower, Botham, Gatting, Gooch, Allan Lamb, John Emburey and Phil Edmonds, England under-performed.

Other notable predecessors were Alec Bedser, Doug Insole, the scarily powerful Gubby Allen, former editor of The Cricketer Sir Pelham Warner and the legendary Lord Hawke.

So Ed Smith… let’s just say some elements, but not all, of the public (and Twitterati) reacted to the ‘news’ with a combination of mild dismay and ambivalence. And I have to say it took me by surprise.

I had expected it to go to Andy Flower, who lost his head coach job after the 2013/14 Ashes but still retains great power in his new role one trench back at the ECB. It seemed likely that Andrew Strauss, the former captain, would give his old coach the new role – the ‘Andocracy' would reign again.

^{The former Kent and Middlesex batsman won three Test caps}

Mike Selvey and Derek Pringle would have been interesting, bringing great new knowledge and a new perspective to the role.

Smith has a reputation as one of the new generation of analytical sports writers who find themselves regularly in Private Eye’s Pseud’s Corner – Matthew Syed of The Times being that organisation’s president. Michael Henderson called Smith “cricket’s very own philosopher king.”

I have always found Smith pleasant and helpful around the press box, and when he came into the offices of the Telegraph, however. I also enjoyed his book, On and Off the Field, about the 2003 season at Kent. At his best he was an entertaining county performer, for sure.

While there were reports that he was not a popular Middlesex captain, Andrew Flintoff likes him, asking Smith to help him with his latest book.

We are told that Smith will be using science and statistics more.

I hope not at the total expense of judgement and instinct. Let’s not forget how the moderately performing Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan were lifted out of the county-stats-swamp by Duncan Fletcher’s gut feeling/crystal ball.

Author Christopher Sandford told me a lovely anecdote about Denis Compton, and the tendency of critics to over-analyse the technical side of the game. “Even I couldn’t tell you how I played half my shots,” Compton said.

“It’s like asking David Nixon how he took a rabbit out of a hat. Maybe it’s technique, maybe it’s not. You really don’t want to know. Just enjoy the show.”