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Cricket fans have been instructed to “buckle up and get ready for the ride” after the appointment of Brendon McCullum as the new coach of England’s men’s Test team was confirmed on Thursday.
The 40-year-old had gone into the recruitment process as an outside bet for the white-ball role but emerged from it as the unanimous choice of the England and Wales Cricket Board’s four-man panel to lead the red-ball team on a path towards what they hope will be greater achievement and excitement.
The Test side has won one of its last 17 games and is being overhauled following the dismissal of previous coach Chris Silverwood in January after the team’s abject performances in the Ashes, and the resignation of its captain, Joe Root, after the series defeat in the West Indies in March. McCullum, who has signed a four-year contract, said in a statement that he was “acutely aware of the significant challenges the team faces at present”.
Ben Stokes - who was born in Christchurch in New Zealand, just a couple of hundred miles from McCullum’s childhood home in Dunedin - was named as the side’s new captain last month.
Rob Key, another recent appointment as England’s managing director of men’s cricket, said he hoped the pair would form a “formidable partnership” but their union is not without risk: McCullum has never coached a first-class team while Stokes’s only experience of captaincy in first-class cricket was a single Test against West Indies in 2020.
“It has been a real privilege to get to know him and understand his views and vision for the game,” said Key. “He has a recent history of changing cricket culture and environments for the better, and I believe he is the person to do that for England’s red-ball cricket. I believe in Brendon and Ben Stokes - a formidable coach and captain partnership. Time for us all to buckle up and get ready for the ride.”
McCullum, who will give up his role with Kolkata Knight Riders at the end of their Indian Premier League campaign after three years as head coach, previously coached Trinbago Knight Riders to the 2020 Caribbean Premier League title.
Low ebb
Known for an inventive and attacking approach to both batting and captaincy, he led New Zealand in 31 of his 101 Test matches as well as 90 of 331 short-form fixtures. With the Test side he took over a team at a low ebb and oversaw the start of a process of improvement that culminated, five years after his retirement, in them winning the inaugural World Test Championship last summer.
His first series in charge of England will be against the Black Caps, beginning at Lord’s on June 2nd.
“I’d like to say how pleased I am to be given this opportunity to positively contribute to England’s Test cricket set-up and move the team forward into a more successful era,” the 40-year-old said. “In taking this role on, I am acutely aware of the significant challenges the team faces at present, and I strongly believe in my ability to help the team emerge as a stronger force once we’ve confronted them head-on.
“I’ve enjoyed several robust conversations with Rob Key about the direction of travel for the team and have found his enthusiasm contagious. I’m no stranger to bringing about change within a team environment, and I can’t wait to get started. Ben Stokes is the perfect character to inspire change around him, and I look forward to working closely with him to build a successful unit around us.”
McCullum is a close friend of Irishman Eoin Morgan, England’s white-ball captain, having acted as master of ceremonies at his wedding, and his New Zealand side were seen as the template for the successful reconstruction of England’s limited-overs fortunes following their humiliation at the 2015 ODI World Cup.
“I like to pick his brain,” Morgan said in 2019. “As a pure leader, he’s exceptional. New Zealand cricket had embodied playing fun cricket under him. Playing against them, we were a little bit jealous.”
The process of identifying England’s new white-ball coach is ongoing with Matthew Mott, the current head coach of the Australia women’s white-ball team and former coach of McCullum at KKR, emerging in recent days as a leading contender. - Guardian