by Our Sports Desk

Colin Graves said yesterday that Andrew Strauss will pick England’s new head coach and Ian Botham has told him to make sure it is Jason Gillespie, with Joe Root as his captain.

Former captain Strauss was on Saturday appointed as the new director of English cricket and his first job is to find a replacement for Peter Moores, whose sacking was confirmed half an hour after Strauss’s appointment.

Graves, who will start his role as the England and Wales Cricket Board’s chairman on Thursday, has worked with Gillespie at Yorkshire and it has been widely speculated that the Australian is the man he wants to replace Moores.

But Graves says the decision will not be his.

He said: “It is Andrew Strauss who takes that call as he builds his team around him. We will not rush into any decision overnight.

“The decision to sack Peter Moores was not a knee-jerk one and this will not be either. Andrew will have an idea who he has in mind and wants to talk to.

“It is his recommendation and he will bring that to (chief executive) Tom Harrison and then to me.”

Another former captain, Botham, believes Yorkshire’s popular title-winning coach Gillespie should be the man Strauss picks.

That would increase the Yorkshire influence within the ECB and Botham believes Gillespie should not stop there, suggesting he put White Rose batsman Root in charge of the side at Alastair Cook’s expense.

England’s second-highest Test wicket-taker said: “The shake-up that the England cricket team has long needed is under way and the selection of Jason Gillespie as coach would be a perfect fit.

“But he should not be the only new appointment in the dressing room, he should be taking charge alongside Joe Root. It is time for Alastair Cook to move aside and take some of the responsibility for the mistakes that have been made over the last 18 months.”