Under-fire England coach Brendon McCullum insists he desires to hold on ‘good gig’ – regardless of overseeing 11-day Ashes give up
Brendon McCullum has insisted he wants to carry on as England coach because ‘it’s a pretty good gig and good fun’ – but admits the decision is out of his hands as the ECB come to terms with their humiliating 11-day Ashes surrender.
In a claim that will raise eyebrows back at Lord’s, McCullum suggested England had ‘definitely improved as a cricket team’ following their 82-run defeat at Adelaide, leaving Australia with the joint-quickest retention of the urn since 1921.
The England coach had a half-hour chat over coffee with managing director Rob Key near the team hotel in Adelaide on Monday morning before the team flew to Melbourne for the fourth Test starting on Boxing Day, with both men’s jobs under scrutiny.
And though McCullum’s contract still has nearly two years to run, his future may be decided by whether England can avoid what would be the fourth whitewash in Ashes history.
It is understood the ECB are not in the mood for mass sackings of the kind that followed their 4–0 defeat during the Covid Ashes four years ago, preferring instead not to undo all the work that, until this trip, had left England with only two series defeats in three and half years of the Bazball era.
McCullum, though, has admitted his team’s preparation was not up to scratch, and has expressed frustration in private that England went into their shells on the second day at Adelaide, eventually making 286 at 3.27 an over on the flattest pitch of the series and in temperatures of 40 degrees that ought to have stretched Australia’s bowlers. It was their slowest first innings since he and Ben Stokes joined forces in 2022.
Brendon McCullum has outlined his desire to stay as England coach despite their Ashes defeat
England have been well-beaten by Australia and are 3-0 down after just 11 days of cricket
Asked whether he still wants to do the job, McCullum replied: ‘Yeah, it’s a pretty good gig. It’s good fun. You travel the world with the lads and try to play some exciting cricket and try to achieve some things.
‘But of course you want to try to get the best out of people. I don’t do anything to protect the job. For me, it’s a matter of trying to just get the very best out of the players. Those other decisions are up to other people.
‘I think we’ve made some progress from when I took over to where we are. We’re not the finished article, but I think we’ve definitely improved as a cricket team. We’ve had an identity about us. Now’s the time for us in the last two Tests to really show that identity and try to salvage something from it.’
Pushed on whether he thought he would still be in the job at the start of the English summer, McCullum said: ‘I don’t know. It’s not really up to me, is it? I’ll just keep trying to do the job, try to learn the lessons that you haven’t quite got right here, and try to make some adjustments. Those questions are for someone else, not for me.’
The England coach has not been helped by the emergence of more details about England’s trip to the Noosa holiday resort on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast between the second and third Tests.
On one occasion, Stokes suggested a 12km morning run, an offer taken up by none of the squad. On another, the strength and conditioning coach Pete Sim invited the players for an early jog along the coast. Only Jamie Smith, Shoaib Bashir and Josh Tongue took him up on the offer.
In fairness, the trip was billed as a chance for the players to get away from the cricket, but it was naive to think a very public stag-do style trip wasn’t going to attract attention if results did not pick up.
Instead, McCullum was left trying to make a virtue of the team’s ‘camaraderie’ as they seek to avoid a 5–0 hammering by an Australian side driven by a desire to ram Bazball down English throats.
‘We’ve tried to unite this team right throughout, and that will be no different over the coming days,’ he said. ‘This one is going to sting, no doubt. But we know we’ve got a job to do in Melbourne and in Sydney. If we can salvage something out of the next two Test matches, then that’s something.’
