Stokes backs McCullum in X-rated rant after coach keeps his job

Ben Stokes publicly backed Brendon McCullum and Rob Key with a rallying cry about the future of the England team after all three were retained following the review into the Ashes tour debacle.

At the end of a day in which Richard Gould, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, said it would have been the “easy” decision to sack McCullum as head coach, captain Stokes cut through the noise with a punchy Instagram post laying out his commitment to the job.

In a statement issued alongside a picture of himself with McCullum and England managing director Key, Stokes said on Instagram: “Being England captain is the greatest honour a player can be given and I do not take it for granted. It has its highs and it has its lows, it makes you want to smile, it makes you want to cry. It completely and utterly consumes you and feels like it’s the only thing in your life at times.

“The last three months has without a doubt been the hardest period of my captaincy journey, it’s tested me in so many different ways and I’m sure every other captain has gone through this as well.

“Baz, Rob and myself have the passion and desire to take this team forward, we are going to give you everything we have, we know we made mistakes along the way, and we have learnt from those mistakes, you learn more from failure than success.

“I f—–g love cricket, I f—–g love this team, I f—–g love being England captain and I have got so much more to give to this role, and I’m so happy that I get to do it with Baz and Rob.”

Gould and Key had earlier addressed the media at Lord’s, presenting the findings of the “thorough review” they had launched immediately after the Ashes were lost 4-1, including no changes to the management structure apart from the hiring of a fielding coach and a new national selector.

Gould defended the decision not to perform an “easy” football-style sacking of McCullum, but accepted it “may not be popular” with fans.

“I think what we’ve seen is a determination from all those involved to adapt and evolve, to understand that there are different ways of doing things and through the disappointment and difficulties of the Ashes to learn from that,” Gould said. “We’ve got a lot of people, yes, hurt by what went on during the Ashes, but equally determined to now put things right and looking forward to seeking revenge in 2027 [when the next Ashes series takes place].”

England pledged to plan better for Test series, an admission that preparing for the Ashes with a three-day intra-squad match at a club ground in Perth was inadequate, to improve the relationship with county cricket, and promised to clean up the team’s culture.

Gould said that the behaviour of Harry Brook in Wellington, where he was punched by a bouncer hours before captaining the team in an ODI, had become “significantly unprofessional”.

Retaining McCullum and his Bazball mantra

The wilting of England’s once-distinctive playing style and culture under the glare of Ashes cricket, resulting in a dismal result against an under-strength Australian side, incensed large portions of the cricketing public. Four years ago, an Ashes series surrendered 4-0 against the challenging backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic cost coach Chris Silverwood and director of cricket Ashley Giles their jobs, with Joe Root stepping down as captain a couple of months later.

This time, it is different. When justifying the decision to retain en bloc a management group who have failed to win any of their four marquee Test series – against Australia and India – since taking over in 2022, Gould cited the example of his father, the former football player and manager Bobby Gould.

“We keep a very close eye on all of our supporters,” Gould said when asked if he had a gauge on the mood of England fans. “We are not going to select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign. We’re going to do it based on good judgment, objective views.

“My old man was a football manager. Sacking was part of the job. It didn’t necessarily do the right thing. Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That’s not the route that we’re going to take. I’ve seen the driving ambition and determination that we’re lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move on forward.

“It may not be the popular route. It may not be the easiest route, but I think it’s the right route.”

Gould said there had been “a lot of consideration as to what is the right mix of leadership”, but turned back to football again when saying: “Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership. It’s not like football where there’s a single point of failure or success with a manager.”

So McCullum, Key and Stokes have been given a mandate until the end of 2027 with minor tweaks around the fringes. Gould said he did not want any of them to be “too different”, because “to be an appropriate leader, you have to be authentic”.

‘We know we made mistakes along the way … You learn more from failure than success.’

England cricket captain Ben Stokes

Key was insistent that there had been no “big bust-up” between McCullum and Test captain Stokes, although it was clear during the Ashes that the two men were diverging in terms of playing style and messaging to players and fans. Gould added that “we are all pulling in the same direction and [are] eager to evolve”.

Team culture under the microscope

McCullum says he runs an “informal environment”, which critics believe is lax, and too heavily reliant on unwinding with alcohol. This culture was pushed at times by players. McCullum took the team for a mid-series break to the Queensland resort of Noosa, where players drank freely in public view. The team’s unprofessionalism, which was under scrutiny even before the Brook incident.

“There was certainly some instances, and particularly the one that we dealt with in New Zealand, which was regarded as significantly unprofessional, and we took action at that particular time,” Gould said.

Key and Gould confirmed that a new charter was in place around player behaviour.

“We want to give people the opportunity and the freedom to make their own decisions, but sometimes we also need to provide them with more strict parameters to work with them,” Gould said.

Key added: “It’s not going to be an easy fix. This is not just a problem for the England team, this is throughout the game.

“You can treat everyone like schoolkids, and they rebel. I’m not going to solve this problem just myself; it’s something we need to do as a game.”

Selection panel change

An advert has gone out for a new “national selector”, effectively replacing Luke Wright, who stepped down for personal reasons after the Ashes. This individual will fit into a complex selection structure alongside a network of scouts and team management.

Key refuted the idea that, for instance, Shoaib Bashir was selected on the back of Stokes seeing a clip on social media of him bowling on Instagram. He added that the loyalty of the selection policy had meant “a lack of consequence for substandard performance”.

“That’s one of the things that we overplayed,” he said. “We did it for a reason, but the pendulum has probably swung too far.”

Re-engaging with the county scene

Part of the changes to selection will be a stronger connection with the county game. Key addressed county executives last Thursday, and will meet with directors of cricket next week. Domestic leaders have been critical of what they perceive to be a broken relationship between England and the County Championship in terms of selection. Key said positions were up for grabs in the early part of the summer, ahead of the Test series against New Zealand, which he sees as the start of a “new cycle”.

Gould: ‘We’ve been here before’

While Gould would not reveal who the ECB had contacted to feed into the report, he did say that it had pored over previous Ashes reviews, including the Schofield Review of 2006-07. The upshot was that only “30-40 per cent” of this review’s findings were actually new.

“Therein lies parts of the lesson,” Gould said. “We need to stop having to relearn old lessons. “We need to make sure that we’ve got the personnel and the team and the management in there that can take those through and not have to relearn the whole time.”

Telegraph, London