Ultimately, McCullum has to take the blame for the Ashes. England were poorly prepared, selection was all over the place and the culture was unprofessional. There was a divergence between Ben Stokes and McCullum on the approach in Australia and captain and coach must always be aligned. Once they fracture, it is over.
McCullum must be held accountable for the Ashes and while ripping up the whole project is never a good idea, changing the coach is a move that will have a ripple effect but not as great as sacking everyone. Finding someone who shares Stokes’ view of the future is the job now.
When he was appointed, McCullum lifted English cricket with his can-do attitude and infectious love for the game.
Thrilling moments flowed: a team that had won only one test in 17 became a winning machine (13 out of the next 18) and only the Manchester rain prevented the greatest of all Ashes comebacks. Previously straitjacketed English batsmen became firecrackers and the team flowered into the most attractive to watch in world cricket.
But it turned out there was no depth to the method. When James Anderson and Stuart Broad retired, the team lost two experienced leaders. That was the moment for the coach to tighten up but the regime became looser and the rot set in.
It culminated in Harry Brook being punched by a bouncer the night before a game, and a 4-1 Ashes defeat by a team denied Josh Hazlewood for the series, could pick Pat Cummins only once, lost Steve Smith for a live test with vertigo and Nathan Lyon with a hamstring injury after three games.
England triumphed in a turkey shoot on a poor pitch in Melbourne, which at least ended 15 winless years in Australia, but as soon as they were presented with a flat deck in Sydney, in other words, once it became about serious cricket again, they conceded 567. Only two players emerged with credit: Jacob Bethell and Josh Tongue and they were not picked when it mattered.
The nadir was not necessarily Sydney and watching Australia lift the urn. It came in Wellington when Brook summed up the decline in standards when he was punched by a bouncer in the early hours on the day of an ODI.
That story, not made public but revealed by Telegraph Sport, was never really just about Brook and one young man’s character weaknesses. To be fair, Brook has responded well as captain over the past couple of months and the early signs are encouraging; he appears to have taken to heart the need to grow up and set a better example. It was right not to sack him as captain for Wellington.
But it happened and it is wrong only to blame the individual for his actions. A culture had been created by McCullum that was so lackadaisical that his captain felt it was acceptable to go out until all hours the night before the game and take two fellow players – Bethell and Tongue – with him. Add that to the lack of planning, poor selection and cultural problems and it makes the coach’s job untenable.
It was obvious in Sydney, before the test and the Brook story emerged, that there was no real appetite at the England and Wales Cricket Board to take an axe to the England management. It has been done before after failed Ashes tours with the same end result.
But the subsequent review should have hardened attitudes. There were players who admitted in private once they were home from Australia that the environment was unserious and they wasted a great opportunity in Australia.
The ECB recognises that it needs to keep a tighter leash on England and is looking to recruit a non-executive director to the board with test match experience to provide better cricketing checks and balances.
But is McCullum capable of change? He is genuine about his philosophy. He felt Stokes and Rob Key blinked in Australia under Ashes pressure and too quickly went back on what they had worked on building for the previous three years. He said as much in his post-match interview in Mumbai. He has a point. Stokes gave out some very mixed messages. But he would argue the coach had failed to clock the pressure of the Ashes and the need to adapt. In English cricket, captains like Stokes hold the power. If he has lost faith in McCullum, then it must be the end.
This was a decent World Cup for England. McCullum clearly has a good relationship with Brook and, in Bethell, is developing a world-class young cricketer who plays in his image. England were patchy at times but won games they could have lost. If only they had done that in Australia.
