England Test captain Ben Stokes described the past three months of his career as the “hardest period” of his leadership journey, as head coach Brendon McCullum and he retained their roles in the longest format, avoiding the sack despite woeful results over the past year. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed that Stokes, McCullum and managing director Rob Key would continue in their roles, giving the trio a lifeline. However, Australian greats such as Adam Gilchrist and Mark Waugh believe the decision was not as straightforward as it appeared.
“It’s only 14 or 15 months until that Ashes return series starts, so you probably think, ‘well, it might be a bit too short a term to put a whole broom through and start a fresh approach with someone else’,” Gilchrist said on Fox Cricket, reacting to the ECB announcement.
“So maybe that’s worked in their favour, and the fact that the recently completed T20 World Cup was on, of course, and they got through and ended up having a pretty successful tournament in that regard also helped,” he added.
The legendary wicketkeeper-batter recalled comments made by England all-rounder Liam Livingstone about the lack of communication within the camp, highlighting the need to address growing issues in the squad.
“Look, they’ve got to change something,” he said. “The more we learnt about the ill-discipline that was filtering throughout that group, where it didn’t seem to allow them to play their best cricket – whether that’s an accurate assessment, that’s the observation, because we didn’t know much through the summer – but all we saw and heard about was ‘We’re all good. We’re happy. The tent is happy.’
“But already there are some little fractures appearing from other people’s comments that weren’t so comfortable, the likes of Liam Livingstone and so on. But they’ve survived. It’s up to them now whether they think they need to change the approach.”
Mark Waugh, sharing his opinion on the ECB’s decision, feels that McCullum and Stokes will have realised they need to fix the mistakes made over the past year, as another reprieve may not be forthcoming.
“It was probably a 50-50 call,” he said. “A lot of people probably thought England needed a new direction, but they have shown faith in Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes who, since taking over, initially did a pretty good job playing games and winning with a very positive attitude. But in the real tests against the top teams they have fallen short.
“But there is no doubt they have to change their ways. Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes are not stupid. They will realise the mistakes they made on the tour in Australia. They are going to have a chance to turn that around.”
Waugh is keen to see if Stokes and McCullum have learned from their mistakes.
“The basics of playing cricket and playing to win are really good, but you need more than one game plan, especially against strong teams. You are probably going to lose games you should win if you are just going to play one way,” Waugh said.
“I’m sure they will have learnt their lessons, and if they haven’t, they are going to get the same results over the next 12 months and lose more than they win. The proof is going to be in the pudding. Let’s see if they learn from their mistakes.”
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