New Delhi, Oct 20 (IANS) England’s newly appointed Test head coach Stephen Fleming has pledged to strengthen the country’s domestic coaching system, saying the national team should ideally be guided by an Englishman, even as he prepares to begin his tenure with the upcoming tour of South Africa.

Fleming, who took over from fellow New Zealander Brendon McCullum on a four-year contract, wants to use his time in the role to groom homegrown coaches and create more opportunities for former England players and county-level coaching staff to work within the national set-up.

“One of my focus points is that I do believe that, primarily, the national team should be coached by a national representative,” Fleming said in an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity, but there will be some development in terms of the coaching, and you can see by our staff that there are some really key people that have come back into the system, and I’m really pleased about that, and I look forward to working with them, but the development of English coaches is a real focus,” he added.

Fleming said he also intended to involve county coaches and former international players in the national set-up whenever their schedules permitted.

“It’s an ambition as well that you will also get county coaches who will be introduced at certain times, and you will get past players that will be asked to come back as well; it’s really inclusive and has a comfortable nature around using what’s around but also driving what should be driven within the county game and the English game,” he said.

Fleming is scheduled to take charge of England for the first time during their tour of South Africa in December. The former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) coach also suggested that England could continue without a specialist spinner in South Africa, relying instead on part-time options.

“Pitches are becoming a little bit more seamier-friendly in Test cricket; games are over in three and a half to four days, max. You’re not getting the deterioration in a lot of wickets that you used to see, with the advent of drop-ins, so it’s becoming a lot more challenging," he said.

“What you’re seeing is the rise of the part-time spinner: in our case, the Bethells, the Lawrences and the Roots. And then if you combine that with four seamers, it’s an adequate – or more than adequate – attack to get through a test match, so the dynamic of it really has changed at the moment,” he added.

--IANS

sds/bc