Matthew Mott under fire to keep job as England men’s cricket coach with opportunities open for a return to Australia

As head coach of the Australian women’s cricket team, Matthew Mott conquered the highest peaks, winning ODI and T20 World Cups, and his stint with England also started with success. Since then though, his tenure has taken a dramatic turn.

Will Australian cricket offer a lifeline for embattled England coach Matthew Mott?

The knives are out for the Queenslander after England’s meek exit in the World Cup semi-final against India, and a push is on for Mott’s biggest critic – Eoin Morgan to take the reins.

There is a view that the lower profile Mott has become the easier fall guy for golden boy white ball captain Jos Buttler, who has already been emphatically endorsed by Test skipper and Baz Ball hero Ben Stokes, despite concerns over his strengths as an on-field tactician and leader.

It was only two years ago that Mott, the all-conquering Australian women’s coach, made the jump across enemy lines and led England’s men to the T20 World Cup at the MCG – and he still reportedly has two years to run on his contract as the nation’s white ball coach.

Australian Matthew Mott is under fire to keep his job as England men’s head coach. Picture: Alex Davidson-ICC/ICC via Getty Images

But Mott is under extreme pressure to avoid the sack after England’s shambolic ODI World Cup last year, and now it’s indifferent T20 performance in the West Indies, where they looked like champions some days, but when it mattered they were off the pace against Australia, South Africa and ultimately India in the semi-final.

England’s managing director Rob Key made comments after last year’s ODI World Cup failure which suggests Mott could be in the gun.

“I feel this (ODI World Cup disappointment) actually should be the making of those two (Mott and Buttler) as a partnership,” Key said at the time.

“If it isn’t, it isn’t and you move on.”

Morgan claimed during last year’s ODI World Cup that there was division within the England camp – many of whom he captained with great success during his own playing career.

There is a push for former white-ball captain for England, Eoin Morgan, to become its coach in the One Day and T20 formats. Picture: Gareth Copley/Getty Images

If England chased Morgan to replace Mott as coach it would be a stunning development.

Mott is determined to continue with England.

“Yeah, I definitely do,” Mott said when asked if he was still the man to coach England.

“I think Jos and I as a partnership we’ve been galvanised in the last six months and you learn more about leadership in times of adversity.

“If you asked around the dressing room, we’ve got a lot of people in the support staff that have given credit to the leadership group for the way we’ve stuck together in tricky circumstances. So sometimes it’s not all about results.

“I think we were good without being great. As a tournament as a whole, given some of the adversity we faced, I was absolutely pumped with Jos’s leadership throughout. I thought he was amazing just to stay so level.”

If Mott is not successful in his desire to continue coaching England, it will be interesting if Australian cricket comes calling again.

Certainly senior figures in Cricket Australia are still massive fans of Mott, a genuine good guy with a proven pedigree as a coach.

South Australia and the Adelaide Strikers are yet to appoint a head coach, and Mott would certainly be over-qualified to take on either role if it was something that appealed to him.

Darren Lehmann is another name who has been tossed up as a potential target for a return to South Australia, after Jason Gillespie blasted the state’s chronic political troubles in grade cricket land when he walked away as Redbacks coach.

Former Test fast bowler Ryan Harris is probably still the favourite for the job, with Tim Paine in the frame as Strikers’ Big Bash coach.