Andrew Strauss is to take a summer-long break from his role as director of England cricket with Andy Flower stepping into the breach as a temporary replacement.

The former England captain’s wife, Ruth, was diagnosed with cancer last December and is due to begin a new treatment at the end of this week. With that in mind, Strauss has been granted a period of compassionate leave to offer his full support.

Strauss, who was appointed three years ago, said: “Andy Flower is going to be stepping in for me over the course of the summer. We all know about his qualities and his experience of both England and English cricket and he will fill in my shoes very adequately.

“ I look forward to returning and grabbing the reins again but at this period of time my focus has to be on supporting Ruth and my family at a challenging time for us.”

Since standing down as England’s Test team director after the 2013-14 Ashes whitewash Flower has been operating in a number of roles behind the scenes, first as the head of elite coaching before taking over as head coach of the Lions set-up.

Strauss has continued his running of the senior England teams during the early stages of his wife’s diagnosis and has recently introduced a new selection system, with Ed Smith taking charge of the panel and now six new scouting roles handed to Marcus Trescothick, Glen Chapple, Steve Rhodes, Richard Dawson, Chris Read and James Taylor.

“They will be compiling reports on players of interest to us,” said Strauss. “But they won’t compile reports on their own players, if they are involved in a county. It is just formalising a process that has been going on in a more ad hoc manner for a long time.

On the new approach he added: “The idea is for us to get better information on all the players in county cricket. This is not what some people think it is, around loads of data and statistics. This is about getting qualitative information on what England’s needs are.”