A new North star? England cricket turn to Australian as new selector
Will Macpherson And Nick Hoult
England are set to name an Australian as their new national selector, with Durham’s director of cricket Marcus North hired this week.
North, who played 21 Tests for Australia, including two Ashes series, between February 2009 and December 2010, appears to have beaten off competition from former England fast bowlers Steven Finn and Darren Gough to get the job following final talks. He is expected to agree and his appointment is expected to be confirmed in the coming days.
North would effectively replace Luke Wright, who resigned after last winter’s Ashes, citing the strain of traveling so much for family reasons. Wright’s job title was England selector, while North would fill the more senior position of national selector, which had not existed for five years since Ed Smith’s dismissal. Smith has made a full comeback and will join the ECB board later this year.
While England have a number of foreign coaches, including incumbent Brendon McCullum, the Western Australian North will be the first not from these shores to be tasked with selecting the national team.
North’s appointment is a nod to the county game. He played for five counties and was in charge of cricket in Durham for the last eight years. He has been in charge of the men’s and women’s programs in the county since the beginning of 2025 and is highly respected in the game.
Under his watch, Durham survived the devastation of forced relegation for financial reasons in 2016 and struggled to regain top flight until surprise relegation last September. They have started the new Division Two season well and have consistently provided players for England in recent years, including four members of last winter’s Ashes party. Top-order batsmen Emilio Gay and Ben McKinney are among those competing for a Test cap this summer.
Finn, a former team-mate of McCullum at Middlesex, was a top-tier candidate but North’s background in management and his work in the county game appear to have secured him the role. Finn, like director of cricket Rob Key, must be coming into this job from a career in broadcasting.
North lived in the North East for many years and met his wife in 2000 while playing for Gateshead Fell Cricket Club. After retirement, he served as director of cricket at South Northumberland before taking a job at Durham, succeeding Geoff Cook in late 2018. As well as his post at Durham, he worked as director of cricket for the Northern Superchargers (now called Sunrisers Leeds) during the Hundred’s early years.
North worked with Test captain Ben Stokes at Durham and white-ball captain Harry Brook at the Superchargers, where he appointed Andrew Flintoff as head coach. Flintoff is currently in charge of the second-tier England Lions side and will work closely with North.
North is expected to be available in time to help select England’s first squad of the summer next week. These include the Test squad to face New Zealand from 4 June and the Lions squad to face South Africa A from 22 May.
North is close to Ben Stokes. However, the selector’s remit is broader than that of the Test team. It covers white-ball cricket, which falls outside Stokes’ remit and covers all levels below.
North will share similar views with Stokes on the direction of the Test team, giving the skipper a strong ally to stamp his authority on the team and take them forward in a different style. Stokes may have settled his differences with McCullum – we’ll see – but not so long ago they shared different views on the future of the team and how they should play. North will share much of Stokes’ vision.
North knows the county game inside out, not just for the players but also for the directors of cricket and head coaches, which will improve communication. It is able to heal the rifts that have developed over the last three years and bring an outsider’s perspective to the UK environment, which can seem like an echo chamber from the outside.
He is the most British of Australians after spending the better part of the past 20 years in county and club cricket as a player, coach and director of cricket. He was also second to Rob Key as England director of cricket four years ago. His appointment to this position puts him in an ideal position to take over if Key leaves office.
One of the failings of the Ashes series acknowledged by the England and Wales Cricket Board was the lack of planning for the tour of Australia, which they attributed to various factors.
Most importantly, in their view, was the management team’s lack of experience in organizing Ashes tours. Almost all of them had left after the 2021-22 outing and subsequent leadership change at the top of the ECB.
North has played 21 Tests for Australia and will be in position to ensure proper planning for the next Ashes tour in 2029-30, which may have helped him win the job ahead of other candidates.
Durham’s relegation last year somewhat overshadowed his good work, but it is important to remember that the North and CEO Tim Bostock picked the club at a very difficult time when the county collapsed and were relegated as punishment for financial difficulties.
Getting them back into League One was a great achievement. The North has experience rebuilding. This will come in handy.
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