3 min readUpdated: Mar 25, 2026 05:59 PM IST
Former England skipper Michael Vaughan said that post the heavy defeat to Australia in the Ashes, he found it staggering that head coach Brendon McCullum wasn’t in the country already in order to watch county cricket and scout talents from there in preparation for the New Zealand test series, set to start in June.
“Now we are told there will be a greater emphasis on attention to detail. If that is the case, then Brendon should be here early this summer watching county cricket and meeting people face-to-face to rebuild bridges because a lot of people in the county system were more than happy to see England get royally beaten in Australia and that cannot be right,” Vaughan wrote for his column in The Telegraph.
“McCullum is the highest-paid international coach in the world so expecting him to arrive in England earlier than five days before the first Test is surely the bare minimum. Instead he is having a Zoom call with the county directors of cricket this week and I’m staggered he is not arriving in England until May 30 when the first Test against New Zealand starts at Lord’s on June 4. That is not good enough and already suggests attention to detail is just words,” he added.
The New Zealander faced stern scrutiny over his position after a disastrous Ashes campaign in which England lost 4–1 to Australia. McCullum’s case was further undermined by reports of off-field incidents. Following the horrendous Ashes, the ECB launched a review process of the team.
Vaughan said that McCullum not coming to England to take stock of the county cricket does not bode well for his image with the fans as well.
“Every now and then optics are important. Just to go on a Zoom call from New Zealand with county chiefs is not the right message. Fans need to see him out and about in county cricket. It would show that times are changing. People in the game in England think Baz does not care about anything other than his bubble in his team. That stems from the people he picks and his backroom staff. It is important he changes that. His stock cannot be so high that he can ignore those things,” Vaughan said.
