Who said what - top 5 expert comments on England's white-ball coaching job vacancy ft. Nasser Hussain

England Cricket announced that the white-ball coach Matthew Mott has stepped down from the role with immediate effect on Tuesday (July 30). He presided over the role in May 2022 and led the national team to title victory in the 2022 T20 World Cup.

However, the English side finished seventh in the 2023 ODI World Cup with three wins in nine games. The team could not defend their T20 crown in the recently concluded T20 World Cup, losing the semi-final against India. As a result, Mott quit the job halfway through his four-year contract.

Assistant coach Marcus Trescothick will take charge of the team for the rest of the home summer, which includes the ODI and T20I series against Australia.

With this development, there are notable cricketers like Andrew Flintoff, Rahul Dravid and Kumar Sangakkara, who are likely to be in contention for taking up the role.

Let's take a look at what the experts in the cricket fraternity think about England's white-ball captaincy.

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#1 "People can relax in his company" - Steve Harmison on Andrew Flintoff

Steve Harmison thinks that his former England teammate Andrew Flintoff is ready to take up the role of head coach due to his personality and relaxed nature.

Notably, Flintoff has been the assistant coach of England's white-ball setup and currently serving as the head coach of Northern Super Chargers in the Men's Hundred.

"Andrew is ready. He's a dressing room man, he's somebody who I think inspires people, is every infectious at creating an environment where you know people can relax in his company, not too dissimilar to Ben Stokes," Harmison said in an interaction on talkSPORT Cricket.

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#2 Darren Gough supports Andrew Flintoff's promotion to head coach role

Former England fast bowler Darren Gough seemed to be optimistic about Andrew Flintoff doing well with England if he is inducted as the head coach. Gough feels the all-rounder is fresh and hungry now, and will learn to succeed in this role, as time passes.

In an interview with talkSPORT, Gough said:

"He's a tremendous personality. He commands respect all around the world, his cricketing CV says it all."

"He's fresh, he's hungry he loves the game, he's missed it and he's got the buzz back and I love to see Freddy like that," he added.

Check out the interaction here.

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#3 Eoin Morgan terms Brendon McCullum as the best candidate for all-format head coach role

Former England captain Eoin Morgan pointed out that experienced candidates like Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting, Stephen Fleming and Brendon McCullum are potential candidates for the role.

"In my eyes at the moment, you would go to Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting, Stephen Fleming... and Brendon McCullum," Morgan said.

Morgan thinks McCullum fits the bill perfectly due to the team's success in red-ball cricket under him. However, the 37-year-old doubted the Kiwi's availability across all formats over the course of the year.

"I say that because I believe he [McCullum] is one of the best coaches in the world," he added. "You see what he did with the Test team. Yes, the big question will be how he makes it fit over the course of the 12 months. But again, from Rob Key's point of view, he needs to make it attractive."

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#4 Nasser Hussain wants Andy Flower to succeed Matthew Mott

In an interaction with Michael Atherton on Sky Sports, Nasser Hussain opined that things went completely downhill after England's 2022 T20 WC victory. In particular, Hussain blamed the side's lackluster decision-making during the 2023 World Cup, which resulted in a disappointing campaign. He said:

"Butler and Mott had immediate success winning the T20 World Cup in Australia in 2022 but since then it's gone completely in the other direction. You know the 50-over World Cup was a poor poor performance, as they were so far off the mark with results and decision-making in that tournament.

"And I guess it shows how far England white ball cricket's come that you get to a World Cup semi-final as they did in Guyana and lose to India and you lose your job on the back of that."

Furthermore, Hussain thinks Andy Flower will be his preferred candidate for the team's head coach due to his success in franchise cricket.

"If you're asking me who is my personal favorite, it would be Andy Flower," he added.

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#5 Michael Atherton pins blame on packed schedule for Matthew Mott's failure in major tournaments

In the aforementioned video, Atherton touched down on the topic of Matthew Mott not spending enough time with the white-ball team due to a packed schedule.

The former batter thinks that the IPL is now taking up a major chunk of the international window, which has widened the gap between two consecutive ODI series. He terms it the key reason for England not finding enough success in recent series/tournaments.

"The problems for Matthew Mott was that there were long periods where the team's not in operation, and we've said that you can't have a coach across both because it's too crowded," Atherton said, "But once you split it, the white-ball coach then spends long periods with the team not in action, now the IPL is obviously an international window in the IPL."

Atherton further named probable candidates like Kumar Sangakkara, Mike Hussey, Simon Katich and Jonathan Trott, who could take up the role. Notably, Trott, who recently coached the Afghanistan team to the semi-final, will complete his tenure by the end of this year.