Black Caps great turned England head coach Brendon McCullum has enlisted the help of the All Blacks’ former personal shrink as he gears up to take on his former side.
Gilbert Enoka has a storied career as a mental skills coach, working alongside New Zealand’s most elite athletes and teams – including a 23-year stint with the All Blacks before standing down after the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Speaking on Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking Breakfast on Friday, McCullum said Enoka had joined the England cricket side in a small capacity as a consultant and made a “sizeable impact”.
“He’s brilliant,” the 101-test former Black Cap said. “He’s the best in the business at what he does, and we’re very lucky that he’s agreed to help us.
“When I lived for a period of time in Christchurch, I actually lived across the road from Gilbert, and I got to know him really well. [I] worked with him throughout my New Zealand cricket career when he was employed in that job, and consider him a good friend.
“He’s a wonderful human being, a truly humble and high-performed person in his life, and he’s got wonderful ethics and integrity.”
The Black Caps will host England in a three-match Twenty20 series in Christchurch and Auckland this month before a three-match one-day international (ODI) series beginning in the final week of October.
McCullum says his role, since taking over England’s test side in 2022 and limited-overs sides at the beginning of the year, hasn’t necessarily been focused on improving the skill of the team.
“When I first came up, most people probably thought that I was more suited to the white ball job, but for me, my skills aren’t really taking teams from good to great per se ... my skills are probably more suited to trying to give a team a bit of soul and to try and strip out a lot of the external noise and the extra stuff which goes on.”
England’s trip to New Zealand has been somewhat overshadowed in overseas media due to their highly anticipated Ashes test series against Australia, beginning next month.
“The Ashes is clearly going to be a massive series. It means so much to both countries and will be followed all around the world, and there’ll be spotlight on our team and the Australian team like these guys have probably never had before,” McCullum said.
But the 44-year-old says they’re focused on treating their trip to New Zealand to face his old side with the respect it deserves.
“We want to make sure that we treat this series against New Zealand, who are very strong at home, with the absolute respect that it deserves and try and not only get performance on the field, but try and create some memories and some experiences for some guys who are touring this country for the first time as well.
“I think in the shorter format of the game, you know, we’ve seen how resourceful New Zealand are, so we know what they’re going to bring.
“Mitchell Santner’s done a great job since taking over the captaincy as well. He’s resourceful with his own game, but also on the way he goes about things. They’re in a bit of transition, the New Zealand side, but we certainly respect them and know that we’ll have to be at our best to beat them.”
Joining McCullum in leading the visitors will be New Zealand’s second-highest wicket-taker in tests Tim Southee, who took up a role to support England’s squads across all formats after retiring from international cricket in December.