Cricket - Graves takes spotlight from Strauss

Graves' five-year tenure is set to begin officially on Friday, at the conclusion of the ECB's annual general meeting at Lord's.

His most pressing task after switching from a successful period with Yorkshire is to continue to ensure he has the faith and backing of those who elected him.

Strauss has endured a manic and taxing six days since being appointed - and one of his toughest challenges appeared all the more so thanks to Graves' remarks about Kevin Pietersen back in March.

In two interviews then, the incoming chairman indicated that Pietersen - sacked by the ECB 15 months ago after England's Ashes whitewash defeat - could yet find a path back into Test cricket at the age of 34 through weight of runs in the LV= County Championship.

The maverick superstar responded in apparent good faith, negotiating a new deal with Surrey at the expense of much of a lucrative Indian Premier League contract, and delivering in the middle with his maiden triple-century at The Oval on Monday.

When, within hours, Strauss blocked his return after all for this Ashes summer because of a "massive trust issue" - some reports have since attributed the source of the impasse to Test captain Alastair Cook's refusal to play with Pietersen again - the latter was able to speak in his newspaper column of receiving "incredibly deceitful" treatment from the ECB.

It is against that backdrop that Graves may have to win over some county administrators all over again.

Regardless, England need to start winning matches - and New Zealand, their first opponents this summer, will not make that easy in two back-to-back Tests at Lord's and Headingley.

In them, Cook will have a new vice-captain in Joe Root - already being moulded by management, it seems, as his eventual sucessor.

Root replaces Ian Bell, who was equivocal on Thursday about the trust issue which will continue to keep Pietersen in exile.

Asked about the understanding Pietersen believed he had with Graves, Bell said: "I don't know that conversation or how that took place.

"If that did happen and then you get 350, of course you can be a little aggrieved, can't you?"

In Pietersen's absence, a middle order of Bell, Root and number three Gary Ballance will bat below Cook and Adam Lyth - who is in line to become England's 666th debutant.

The Yorkshireman will be offered the option by England to skip to 667 and therefore avoid having the figure widely associated with the devil or the anti-Christ embossed on his cherished cap.