England coach Brendon McCullum after losing the third Ashes test in Adelaide. Photo / Getty Images
Rob Key’s job as managing director appears safe amid England’s review into the Ashes debacle, but Brendon McCullum’s future as coach beyond next month’s T20 World Cup remains in doubt.
Richard Gould and Richard Thompson, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s respective chief executive and chairman, have been conducting a review into the Ashes campaign, which England lost 4-1 despite much pre-series optimism.
The series ended with defeat in Sydney and allegations the team had drunk too much on tour following a mid-series trip to Noosa. Telegraph Sport also revealed that test vice-captain Harry Brook had been involved in a drunken altercation with a nightclub bouncer just hours before leading England in New Zealand.
The ECB has shown a desire to keep the hierarchy – including captain Ben Stokes, whose position also seems safe – in place, with tweaks to the approach and culture.
Key has fed into the review and, barring a late change of heart, appears set to keep his job as managing director of England men’s cricket, which he has held since April 2022. Speaking in Melbourne before Christmas, Key took responsibility for the team’s poor preparation for the Ashes – which involved the tour of New Zealand and a three-day internal match against the second-string Lions – and other aspects of the tour’s planning, including selection.
Key has not spoken publicly since before the fourth test in Melbourne, which England won, but is expected to travel to Sri Lanka or India in the coming weeks.
The arrival of a T20 World Cup has bought the ECB time to conduct the review steadily. After the World Cup, England have almost three months until the next assignment, a test series against New Zealand in June.
There has been a determination from ECB insiders not to “throw out” England’s entire approach as it has done after losing the Ashes before, lurching from one direction to the next. That is what the ECB did four years ago after a 4-0 defeat, with managing director Ashley Giles and head coach Chris Silverwood among those to lose their jobs, paving the way for the “Bazball” project under Key and McCullum.
The style of play has provided moments of great entertainment, but England failed to win any of their first four five-match series against India or Australia.
Key’s remit, unlike McCullum’s, extends beyond the men’s national team, although clearly that is the flagship element of it, and the ECB views it as a role that is ideally done for more than four years by each holder of the post.
Key appointed McCullum as test coach in 2022 and added white-ball responsibilities to his remit in 2024 after Matthew Mott – another Key appointment – was removed from his role following successive disappointing World Cup campaigns.
However, despite this, McCullum’s position still appears less certain than that of Key or Stokes. It has been made clear by the ECB that some aspects of the team’s off-field behaviour needs to change, as well as their approach to training and preparation.
McCullum is a coach with a specific approach designed to remove some of the immense pressure felt by players and he has hinted that if changes are imposed upon him, he is not the man for the job. The once-unbreakable bond between McCullum and Stokes did appear to fray a touch under the pressure and scrutiny of the Ashes in Australia.
McCullum said in the aftermath of defeat in Sydney: “I have firm beliefs in what works,” adding: “Am I for being told what to do? Of course I’m not.”
Speaking about the notion of ideas imposed upon him, McCullum said: “Without being ultimately able to steer the ship, maybe there is someone better.”
There are already some signs of cultural and coaching changes being put in place. Less than two weeks after the Ashes ended, McCullum is in Sri Lanka for a white-ball tour. The first of three one-day internationals is on Thursday, with three T20 matches to follow ahead of a World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, beginning on February 7.
England have put a midnight curfew in place for the Sri Lanka tour following the emergence of captain Brook’s altercation with a nightclub bouncer hours before captaining the ODI team in New Zealand last year.
Adil Rashid and Rehan Ahmed have been able to join the tour following the late issuing of their visas for the India leg of the trip. England are also joined by a fielding coach, Carl Hopkinson, which represents a notable departure from the Ashes, where their backroom staff was slim.
Bowling consultant David Saker is again with the group, but the New Zealand mind coach Gilbert Enoka, a friend of McCullum’s famed for his “no d***heads” policy with the All Blacks, is not.
The team took part in their first training session in Colombo on Tuesday and Brook will face the media for the first time since the disclosure of the incident in New Zealand on Wednesday.