The team leaders who oversaw England’s Ashes capitulation over the summer are lucky to still be in a job after an internal two-month-long review, according to a trio of former captains.
Michael Atherton, Michael Vaughan and Geoffrey Boycott said coach Brendon McCullum and team director Rob Key were particularly fortunate, while current players have also responded to the review, which found issues in culture, preparation and the national team’s lack of connection to the county system.
Opener Ben Duckett, whose disappointing tour was capped by video of him appearing drunk and disorientated at Noosa, has decided to pull out of his Indian Premier League contract to focus on hanging on to his international place.
Duckett, whose Ashes top score was 42 and was unused during England’s Twenty20 World Cup campaign, told England’s Daily Telegraph he had “learnt a lot in the last year”.
“Going from how I was being spoken about during the India series [last year], to how I am spoken about now. That’s a ridiculously big dip,” he said.
“I’m desperate to play all three formats for England for as long as I can.”
The decision to withdraw from playing for the Delhi Capitals will cost Duckett $380,000 and is likely to lead to an IPL ban until 2029.
Duckett admitted his regret at what happened in Noosa.
“It was not professional and shouldn’t have happened. There is no hiding away from it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Jonny Bairstow, who was discarded after winning his 100th cap in March 2024, cast doubt on promises that the management would reconnect with the domestic county game and pick on form rather than hunches.
Jonny Bairstow was one of the early successes of the Bazball era, but has since been cast aside. (Getty Images: Martin Rickett/PA Images)
“You have to ask, ‘Why have they disconnected in the first place?,'” he said.
“The proof is in the pudding, so we will wait and see.”
Former captain Michael Atherton said in The Times he “would have moved heaven and earth to see if Andy Flower (who oversaw the 2010/11 series win in Australia) could have been persuaded to return”.
The review, he added, exposed “blindingly obvious” errors, and McCullum and Key were “very fortunate” to remain after a “disastrous Ashes campaign, characterised by sloppiness on and off the field”.
Former captain Michael Atherton (right) wanted Brendon McCullum (left) replaced. (Getty Images: Adam Davy/PA Images)
“I think they’re very, very lucky,” said Michael Vaughan, who led England to victory in the 2005 Ashes.
“There’s not many management groups that deliver something so poor away from home in an Ashes series and get the chance to carry on.”
Vaughan, talking on the BBC’s Test Match Special podcast, added McCullum, instead of not returning to England until late May, should build bridges with fans and the county players and coaches.
In a typically trenchant column in the Daily Telegraph Geoffrey Boycott, who last played for England in 1982, said the county chairmen “should assert themselves and sack the England and Wales Cricket Board’s chief executive Richard Gould for treating us, England cricket lovers, like idiots”.
“The incompetence of Key and McCullum sabotaged our chances of defeating Australia in Australia when they were at their most vulnerable and there for the taking,” he wrote.
The Yorkshireman said England had become a “complacent boys’ club” whose dogmatic coach was unlikely to change his approach.
AAP
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