The ECB's managing director of cricket, Rob Key, has been a busy man since landing the role last month ahead of a busy summer of international cricket.
The former England batsman has named Ben Stokes as Joe Root's successor and is now aiming to name two separate coaches for the Test and white-ball teams.
However, Key still had time to sit down with Sportsmail's NASSER HUSSAIN to discuss his new captain, the lack of English coaches in the game, and why rhetoric from both sides of the debate around The Hundred annoys him.
The ECB's new managing director Rob Key (R) sat down with Sportsmail's Nasser Hussain (L)
Nasser Hussain: Was it something we said? Were you not getting enough air time at Sky? Why this sudden decision to up and go?
Rob Key: It would have been just after the Ashes when Ashley Giles, Chris Silverwood and Graham Thorpe had all gone. I play golf occasionally with Andrew Strauss and he said, 'Do you fancy doing a real job?' I told him I could be interested but I never thought I wouldn't be working with Sky. Unless they sacked me!
But things moved quickly and I found myself walking into Lord's going from a job I loved. The attraction was that I felt I could make a difference. That was the only thing that could have got me away from doing what I was doing. The chance to see if I could have an impact on English cricket.
Hussain: The easy option was to go on talking a good game but this is the more difficult road. You were an excellent broadcaster and could have carried on doing that…
Key says the attraction of taking the role at the ECB was that he felt he could make a difference
Key: And to be honest it's like when you get picked for England as a player and you get butterflies because you have no idea if you're going to be any good. You just hope you are.
I have faith in my views and that challenge is exciting. Every time I get up in the morning now there's something to think about and I have to put my money where my mouth is.
Hussain: What did you make of the reaction to your appointment? Some people said 'this is another case of jobs for the boys. What does he know about administration?'
Key: I don't avoid reading things but I don't seek reaction. A lot of players said to me when I was at Sky, 'I don't care what you say about me' and then reeled off the last 20 times I'd mentioned them. It doesn't really bother me. I'm not trying to work out astrophysics. I'm trying to make decisions on cricket and I reckon I've got 30 years experience of that.
I've worked with the best and worst coaches, I've been in the system, I've seen how the ECB works and I did a lot of administrative stuff at Kent. What you do in any leadership role is get the best people in, support them and help them have an impact.
Hussain: I liked your answer to the suggestion Ben Stokes was the only choice as Test captain. You said, 'if there had been 10 choices I'd have gone for Ben' and I know if I were captain that would make me feel a million dollars. But he did have mental health issues last year. How much did you have to make sure he was in the right place to do the job?
Key hopes there are more like Friday's hundred to come from new England captain Ben Stokes
Key: You have to make sure the captain is in the right stage of his life to take it on. The one thing I have seen is that the last couple of years in bubbles have been horrendous and that was not only tough for Ben but the whole team. Ben was strong enough to take himself out of that environment for a while and I think that's a sign of courage and mental strength.
Hussain: And wasn't it great to see Stokes bat the way he did on his return for Durham at Worcester on Friday?
Key: That's the thing about Ben. Every time he is given extra responsibility he responds like that. People forget when he was given the No 6 for England after being down the order he immediately hit a brilliant hundred under pressure against New Zealand. Let's hope with that added responsibility and not being in bubbles any more there's more like Friday's hundred to come.
Hussain: Your next major decision is the coaches. Why have you decided to split the role and how will you make sure you don't end up with people being pulled one way then the other, as it was when Andy Flower and Ashley Giles shared the role?
Key: There's lots of reasons but one of the main ones is that England's schedule is so busy. If there was one coach they would oversee a series and then jump on a plane and go straight into another format. There will have to be a complete change of thinking as to how we organise the coaching and I think other countries will follow even though they don't play as much cricket as England.
There's more understanding of that among the coaches too. We have a pretty good field of candidates and nearly all of them said, 'I wouldn't be going for this if it was just one coach for all formats'. You want the best people and you build the structure around them. Then it will be up to me to manage the relationship between the two.
Andy Flower (front) and Ashley Giles (back) shared the Test and white-ball coaching roles
Hussain: Your problem is some of the best coaches are working in the Indian Premier League. What if they say, 'I'd like the job but I'd like to carry on working in the IPL?'
Key: It's not an issue if they're the best person. You have to move with the times and I can't see why Jos Buttler, for instance, could play the whole IPL but our coaches couldn't be there for it all. Who knows where the IPL will be in five years' time but at the moment there's no international cricket when the IPL's on. I'd rather have the best person for 10 months a year than someone not as good for 12.
Hussain: It looks like most of the best coaching candidates this time are from overseas. There are exceptions. Mark Robinson for one. Mark Alleyne. But why are we not producing more English coaches to compete for these jobs?
Key: It's gone on for a long time. It hasn't gone particularly well for a couple of English coaches who have had the main job so their reputation is not as good as it should be. The caveat to that is we don't give them enough opportunities.
We have to look at how we educate our coaches. You want to invest in the right people. There are a lot of other things you can do in the game. You and I went to the other side of the fence in the media and that's very attractive but we have to make sure we keep an eye on the best people coming through the system because in a few years they might be ready to become England coach.
Hussain: Ashley Giles was very much a players' director of cricket. I think you once said, 'the only thing he said no to was football'.
Key: Let's get this right. I said that to you off air and then you nicked it for one of your Mail columns!
Hussain: I nicked all your best lines. There weren't many. You're trying to distract me now. Are you willing to say no to players? If a player wants to take up a million-pound IPL deal but you think it's better for English red-ball cricket for him not to go are you strong enough to make an unpopular decision?
Mark Robinson is an exception but there are not enough English coaches being produced
Key: I don't have an issue with that. These things are not binary. It's not simply that you can tell a player not to go to the IPL because what happens when he then turns round and says, 'OK, I don't want a central contract, I'll go down a different route'. Any decision won't be a hard one to make if it's the right thing to do. If a player wants to do something that won't benefit English cricket the answer will be no.
Hussain: The viewing figures for our Sky vodcasts have gone through the roof because every journalist has gone back over them to see what you said about various people. Do you have to be consistent now with what
