With yesterday’s departure of England Women’s Performance Director Paul Shaw, following so soon after the resignation of Academy coach Lisa Keightley, both of the two most important coaching roles in English women’s cricket are now in-play, raising the question of just exactly who is in charge now? And with England central contracts due to be renewed over the next 3 months, this is a bit more than an academic issue!

Sources at the ECB have told CRICKETher that Paul Shaw will continue to play an in-post active role through December, and is very-much involved in the ongoing process of contract renewals.

Meanwhile, the ECB’s priority is to name his successor by January, prior to the South Africa tour in February; and with the calibre of candidate they are seeking this is likely to take some time, so for the moment we are told that the Academy role is basically on hold and the ECB will not be seeking candidates until after the new Head Coach is appointed – i.e. early next year.

Reading between the tea-leaves, another reason may be that this will also potentially allow the incoming Head Coach to have some input into who is appointed to the Academy, because although the jobs are not formally linked, in practice they will need to work very closely together at Loughborough, where the Academy share the facilities with the top-tier “Performance” squad.