Monday 12 March 2018 13:25, UK
James Whitaker will step down as England National Selector at the end of March, the ECB has announced, amid a shake-up of scouting.
Whitaker has been an England selector for 10 years and has been National Selector since 2013, overseeing four Ashes series wins, Test series wins in India and South Africa and victory in the 2010 ICC World T20 tournament.
The ECB has announced that it will be introducing a "new approach to scouting, assessing and selecting players for the senior Test, T20 and One-Day sides".
The system will see a new National Selector form part of a three-person selection panel that will also include a full-time independent England selector and the England head coach.
"The new approach will allow us to see more players throughout the county game, more often, and simplify the selection process," said Andrew Strauss, director of England Cricket.
"We will have a greater body of information, deeper insight into the talent we can pick and a better understanding of who to help develop across the red-ball and white-ball games."
Meanwhile, Whitaker spoke of feeling honoured to fulfil the role of National Selector for the last five years.
"It has been an immense privilege and an honour for me to have been an England selector for the last ten years," he said.
"I am very proud of what the team has achieved during this period and will always treasure the memory of those four different Ashes series wins and our first ever victory in an ICC global event.
"I have been involved for a decade now and it feels that the time is right, with this new approach, for me to move on."
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