Image source, Getty ImagesBrendon McCullum has been sacked as Test coach in another staggering twist in the unravelling of the England team.
Two weeks after Ben Stokes made the stunning announcement to step down as captain and retire from international cricket, McCullum’s exit brings a definitive end to the Bazball era.
The New Zealander will continue as England’s white-ball coach, but leaves the Test team following a string of poor results and several off-field incidents.
Director of cricket Rob Key will remain in his position, with the decision to remove McCullum coming after the hierarchy of the England and Wales Cricket Board spent time reflecting on the situation surrounding the men’s team.
“I’ve absolutely loved coaching the Test side and I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved together,” said McCullum. “There’ve been some unbelievable highs and a few tough days along the way, but that’s all part of taking on a challenge like this.
“Of course I’m gutted not to be continuing, but I respect the decision. My focus now is on giving everything I’ve got to the white-ball teams and helping England keep moving forward.”
England have lost seven of their past nine Tests, including the 4-1 Ashes hammering in Australia.
McCullum, Stokes and Key were backed to remain in charge following that defeat, only for England to be beaten 2-1 by New Zealand.
The defeat by the Black Caps – England’s first in a home series of at least three Tests for 14 years – was overshadowed by a nightclub incident involving Stokes and Gus Atkinson, then Stokes’ abrupt retirement.
Now, the England Test team has no head coach and no captain, with the next series against Pakistan beginning on 19 August.
Harry Brook appears favourite to be named as Test captain, though that appointment could now hinge on the identity of the next head coach.
Since 1999, England have had only two English head coaches of the Test team. Peter Moores did the job twice, while Chris Silverwood was McCullum’s predecessor.
Zimbabwean Andy Flower, who was in charge when England won the Ashes in Australia in 2010-11, would be the standout candidate to replace McCullum, though it is not known if he could be lured from the franchise world.
Homegrown candidates might include Glamorgan head coach Richard Dawson, or his fellow former England spinner Gareth Batty, now in charge at Surrey. Legendary former all-rounder Andrew Flintoff is head coach of England Lions, though has previously said he does not want the job with the senior team.
Australian Ryan Campbell has impressed at Durham, while ex-Australia coach Darren Lehmann is now head coach at Northants.
In remaining as white-ball coach, McCullum can continue to build on the improvements made by England’s limited-overs team. The victory over India on Saturday gave England a 4-0 T20 series win over the world champions and put them at number one in the world rankings.
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McCullum combined the Test and white-ball roles in 2024, two years after he first took charge of the Test team. When he arrived as Test coach in 2022, he initially embarked on a spell of superb results earned with some breathtaking cricket.
The partnership with Stokes – the Bazball style – revitalised an England team that had won only one of its previous 17 Tests.
With some swashbuckling batting, England earned famous wins over New Zealand at Trent Bridge, India at Edgbaston and Pakistan in Rawalpindi, the latter the beginning of a 3-0 series win. Overall, England won 10 of their first 11 Tests under McCullum and Stokes.
However, since that initial period of success, England have lost 19 and won 17 of 38 Tests, beginning with a heart-stopping one-run defeat by New Zealand in Wellington, sustained after England enforced the follow-on.
England fell 2-0 down in the home Ashes of 2023, yet turned it around to draw 2-2 and perhaps would have won the urn had rain not washed out almost the entire last two days of the fourth Test at Old Trafford.
The tour of India in 2024 began with another famous win in Hyderabad, only to decline into a 4-1 series defeat.
On returning home from India, Stokes, McCullum and Key set their sights on the Ashes tour of 2025-26, including ending the career of England’s all-time leading wicket-taker James Anderson.
England formed a plan to hit Australia with pace and assembled arguably their most hostile attack in more than 50 years for the trip down under.
But the tour fell apart in a blur of inadequate planning, poor performances and allegations of a drinking culture.
After playing only one warm-up match against the Lions, England were in a strong position in the first Test in Perth – 105 runs ahead with nine wickets in hand shortly after lunch on the second day. In an astonishing implosion, England were beaten before the day was out and never recovered.
Although England won the fourth Test in Melbourne, their first win in Australia for 14 years, their performances elsewhere were abject – a threadbare squad left ill-prepared for the demands of a tour down under.
Off the field, England’s reputation was affected by their public drinking in Noosa, when opener Ben Duckett was filmed, apparently drunk.
Worse was to come at the end of the Ashes tour, when it emerged Brook had been struck by a nightclub bouncer in Wellington on the eve of a one-day international on the tour of New Zealand that preceded the trip to Australia.
After they were backed to remain in their jobs, McCullum and Stokes attempted to distance themselves from rumours of a rift that had supposedly developed in Australia.
England added to their backroom staff to aid preparation and implemented a midnight curfew in an attempt to avoid further controversy.
There was optimism when they won the first Test of the home summer against New Zealand at Lord’s, however the nightclub incident that unfolded when Stokes was celebrating that win sparked the chain of events that has left England in turmoil.
McCullum’s contract with the white-ball team runs to the end of the 50-over World Cup in southern Africa next autumn.
Now, England must find a head coach of the Test team who can work alongside McCullum’s big character and relaxed approach.
‘It began with a bang, it ended with a bang’
Analysis by chief cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew
It began with a bang, it ended with a bang. You read the ECB stuff and you wonder why they’ve sacked him. It’s extraordinary things they’ve said here – he leaves the Test team well set and poised to achieve great things, so why have they sacked him?
They sacked him because of a lot of ill-discipline, the Ashes – an awful lot was said about that both on and off the field. Off the field is just as important here. The lack of discipline there has been. That, I suspect, has been Richard Gould’s primary concern here.
He looks at the cricketing landscape, particularly in the men’s team, and it’s like it’s been napalmed. The image of the men’s game is very, very poor. They have to be seen to be gaining discipline and taking more control of the English game.
Who will come in? No idea at all. I don’t think it will be someone as loose – and that was very positive at the start. It’s important to remember that when McCullum and Stokes did take over, English cricket was in a real mess and they did revolutionise it and they won 10 of the first 11 Test matches they played together and in wonderful, unforgettable ways.
I’ll be very interested to see who they appoint as coach. At the moment all the really top ones seem to be very comfortably positioned with the nice pickings of franchise cricket that pays them well and means they’re not away from home for months and I don’t think there’s the scrutiny that the England coach has. He really is under the spotlight, like the England captain.
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