England has finally settled on Chris Silverwood’s successor as the ECB announced the appointment of New Zealand cricket legend Brendon McCullum as the new head coach of the Test team.
For a team that has lost the previous five Test series’, the decision to hand McCullum represents a major risk especially since he has never coached at first-class or Test level.
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As a player, the Kiwi was known for his exciting and attacking play across all forms of cricket, dazzling with his risky style of batting that either netted him major rewards or ended his innings early.
His only experience as a coach has come in franchise cricket, leading teams in the Indian and Caribbean Premier League.
T20 cricket is the one form of the game that was a perfect marriage for how McCullum liked to play the game, but how will he go as a Test coach?
No-one exactly knows, which is perhaps why England director of cricket Rob Key warned fans to “buckle up and get ready for the ride.”
What that ride entails has former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan slightly nervous.
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“I am all for attacking play and being aggressive but I don’t think this England Test team is in a position to play that way at the moment,” Vaughan wrote in The Telegraph.
“They have to take small steps first, get used to playing long hard periods of Test cricket and then in time, if you get a group of players with a lot of confidence, they can play more flamboyantly.
“They need a bit of ‘backs to the walls’ stuff first. I hope Brendon can drive that.
“He is the kind of person who might not want to do that but he has to realise England are in a position where they need to just to do the basics for longer periods than they have been doing.
“They cannot be flamboyant because they will get bowled out cheaply. They are not a team who can play a huge amount of shots. They have to give themselves a chance to stay in.”
But nervousness can also bring about excitement.
Handing McCullum the keys to the Test team is a one-way trip to the unknown as England prepare to risk things a little more than they have in the past.
Sure, the results may not be exactly what all parties involved wish for, but The Times’ chief cricket correspondent Mike Atherton believes that “it will be a lot of fun watching them try.”
“After two grim years of desperate, unimaginative leadership, the England Test team, one suspects, are about to be given licence and freedom to play, and will not lack inspiration from leaders in whom a competitive spirit and desire to win seeps from every pore,” Atherton said.
“The sense of renewed optimism after the announcement of Stokes as captain has been reinforced.”
There are also undeniable parallels between the personalities of Stokes and McCullum.
“The perception of Brendon is that he is attacking, flamboyant, risky, a gambler and a bit of a lad,” Vaughan said.
“What is our impression of Ben? Exactly the same.”
The striking similarities between the two might be why McCullum is reportedly set to end England’s midnight curfew, according to The Telegraph’s Nick Hoult and Tim Wigmore.
The curfew has been in place since 2017 having been imposed by former team director Andrew Strauss after a number of boozy drinking sessions late at night became public knowledge.
The curfew required players to return to the team hotel by midnight and they were permitted to continue enjoying each other’s company after that time but only in the confines of the team hotel.
Ending the curfew will be music to the ears of Stokes and other senior players in the squad.
“It is understood Stokes believes players should be responsible for their own actions and if treated like adults will act accordingly,” Hoult and Wigmore said.
“If they go out drinking at times when it would be unprofessional for the team’s cause, then they will be held responsible.”
Of course, the decision will not be made without informing Key.
But he has shown that he’s willing to make bold choices in his quest to restore England as a Test powerhouse.
“In his first big appointment – making Stokes captain was such a formality as to be no decision at all – Key could not have signalled his intention any more clearly to move away from what has characterised the side for two years,” Atherton said.
“As is often the way, Key has chosen someone cut from a very difficult cloth to his predecessor; McCullum is the anti-Chris Silverwood.”
It just so happens that McCullum’s first games as England Test coach will be a three-match series against New Zealand in June.
Time will tell as to how successful he will prove to be, but from the commentary over in England, one thing’s for certain: it won’t be a boring ride.