Andrew Strauss has expressed concerns over a lack of English head coaches in the Hundred, fearing it could have a knock-on effect for the national teams down the line.

The former director of England cricket, who hopes to turn Lord’s red on Thursday in a bid to raise money for the cancer foundation set up in memory of his late wife, Ruth, appointed Trevor Bayliss as England coach in 2015 and the Australian oversaw the World Cup win this summer.

Looking at the landscape from next summer onwards, when the controversial 100-ball tournament begins, Strauss appears uneasy that English coaches have been overlooked for the six positions already confirmed.

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“Personally I think that was a great opportunity for some English coaches to be appointed,” Strauss said. “Some of those teams will have their reasons for appointing an experienced coach who has coached in T20 cricket elsewhere in the world. You can completely understand that. [But] there is a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation: unless English coaches get the opportunity, how can they get the experience?

“We’ve always got to look for opportunities for our English coaches to get more experience than just doing county coaching gigs. They need to do more than that if they’re going to be viable candidates for England jobs going forward.”

The Australians Shane Warne, Simon Katich and Andrew McDonald have been hired for the Lord’s, Old Trafford and Edgbaston teams respectively, and the South African Gary Kirsten will be in charge at Cardiff. The Australians Matthew Mott and Lisa Keightley have also taken on the equivalent head coach roles for the women’s teams at Cardiff and Lord’s.

Darren Lehmann, the former Australia head coach, is tipped to take on the Headingley men’s team and his fellow countryman Tom Moody is in line at the Oval. The New Zealander Stephen Fleming and the Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene are favourites for the respective positions at Trent Bridge and the Ageas Bowl, too.

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County coaches are expected to be seconded to the various backroom set-ups in assistant roles. But one chief executive told the Guardian that teams are essentially being forced to look abroad for the top jobs as the leading domestic candidates would be stymied by the draft system that is being used to sign players (unless they left their current positions).

Strauss stepped down from running the England men’s team last summer to care for his wife in the final stages of her battle with a rare form of lung cancer. He has since set up the Ruth Strauss Foundation which raises money for research and support networks, with “red” the dress code for day two of the Lord’s Test.

His replacement, Ashley Giles, is looking for a new England head coach and has said his preference would be for a local appointment; Chris Silverwood, who oversees the bowlers, is among the front-runners after leading Essex to the Division One title in 2017.

They will be big shoes to fill. Strauss described the World Cup as the “crowning moment” for Bayliss and while England’s Test fortunes fluctuated during Strauss’s four-year tenure, the former captain believes the issues are more systemic than down to the head coach or captain, Joe Root.

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Strauss said: “It’s a reflection more than anything of our top-order batting and our ability to take 20 wickets away from home. [The batting] is a longstanding issue looking back five or six years ago, when we last had a solid, stable top order. That’s got to be a priority and not just to identify batsmen but for batsmen to take their chance.

“Ultimately it’s an incredible opportunity for anyone, as top-order batsman, to stamp their mark and grab one of those places with both hands. It was great to see Rory Burns make his maiden Test century last week, I thought he played fantastically well and hopefully others will follow his lead.”