James Whitaker: “It has been an immense privilege and an honour for me to have been an England selector for the last ten years”

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The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has confirmed that James Whitaker will step down from his role as England’s national selector at the end of the month.

The move comes as the ECB want to introduce a “new approach to scouting, assessing and selecting players for the senior Test, T20 and One-Day sides”.

Whitaker has been been a selector for 10 years and was made national selector in 2013. In his five years as national selector, the 55-year-old made it clear that he is extremely proud of everything the national team has achieved.

“It has been an immense privilege and an honour for me to have been an England selector for the last ten years,” he was quoted as saying by Sky Sports. “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.”

As for the ECB’s shake-up, a new national selector will be appointed and will serve on a three-member selection panel that will include the national team’s head coach and a full-time independent England selector.

Explaining the reason why the ECB have decided to go down this route, director of cricket and former captain Andrew Strauss said: “The new approach will allow us to see more players throughout the county game, more often, and simplify the selection process.

“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.”