ECB managing director Rob Key talks about England’s Ashes disappointment, how Brendon McCullum can improve and whether the team has a drinking problem following the Harry Brook incident in Wellington.
The announcement comes after it was confirmed that McCullum would remain in his job as head coach despite England’s 4-1 loss to Australia this winter.
Key answers questions from Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton in a wide-ranging interview on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast…
Why did England lose The Ashes?
“Our bowling attack was really inexperienced in the conditions they were in. We got a decent score in Brisbane, not a great score. We got a decent score, but our bowlers just couldn’t get into enough rhythm and form enough to be able to push forward at full speed. It was the same with the Perth batsmen.”
“We’re trying to find a way for them to be in top form the next time something like that happens. It’s unfair to say that most of our players, most of our players, are not fit and ready to endure the rigors of international cricket, certainly international cricket. But on several occasions, there have been some players who have been out of form for far too long.
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ECB managing director Rob Key speaks to Sky Sports about why he feels Brendon McCullum is the right man to take England cricket forward and how he is dealing with the aftermath of last winter’s Ashes defeat.
“We were hoping that they would get back on track and be pretty much OK that night, but they weren’t, so we’re going to try to correct all of this.
“Just in terms of the rigors of international Ashes cricket, it’s as tough a cricket as we’ve ever had. And in that aspect, I think for a lot of the players, especially when it came back, they weren’t prepared for what was coming. Those are things that we’re going to try to rectify for next time.”
The toughest three months for Key – and why firing is not the answer
“I don’t mean to downplay what we’ve been through if accountability is just being abdicated. And, again, that’s not the case, you know, there are people who have it much worse.
“I’m in a blessed position. But the last three months have been as difficult as anything I’ve ever been through in my career, if not my entire life. Really, everything you try for doesn’t work out. And it doesn’t work out.
“And we have to face the harshest reality of all. So it’s hard to argue that there’s liability if the only way you can find liability is to fire people. But I don’t actually think that’s the only way.
“Brendan, Ben, that doesn’t mean that everything we’ve been working on isn’t going to work. And, like I said, it’s very legitimately criticized, but from that moment on, it’s not easy. So I feel like we’ve been through, you know, our own version of it more than anything else.”
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ECB chief executive Richard Gould defended his decision to back the coaching team of Brendon McCullum and Rob Key, who oversaw the Ashes defeat this winter.
How will McCallum evolve?
“I think we both believe that we’ve actually put a lot of emphasis on loyalty and a stable team, giving players good results. The problem is that it’s probably gone too far.”
“Poor performances are not enough. Results are not enough when people don’t score runs that should be scored in a row or they don’t take wickets. And that becomes part of that culture. We need to be more ruthless in what we do and we need to be more ruthless in some of the choices we’ve made so far. The reason we did that is because we put a lot of value on the team going into the Ashes consistently.”
“Now we’re at a new stage where we’re like, ‘Okay, now we need these guys to be proper run-scorers.’We still need players who can put pressure on the bowlers, but we really have to go there and make a big contribution to the 70s, 150s, 200s and winning games.
“If you want Brendon McCollum to be a completely different coach or do everything in a completely different way, of course we don’t want him to do that. You should hire another coach. Brendon McCullum was a very good player and good players don’t get to that position without evolving and adapting, and that’s what we want him to do.”
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Nasser Hussain doubles down on England’s decision-making and missed chance to beat Australia in Ashes series.
“When I watched the team play in Sri Lanka, I thought they did that. Buzzball is all about one way of playing and you try to play like that on the spinning pitch in Sri Lanka, but you can’t do that. Champions If you look at the way we went from the trophy, we all picked up the pace and I thought that’s the way to go. And we tried spin and came up with a different style of play, a different way to adapt to the conditions. And I thought they did it brilliantly.
“I don’t want him to be another manager. I just want him to be a better team than before and evolve into that kind of team. He always wanted a team that could adapt.
“When I talk to him, it’s always like, ‘How do you want someone so ruthless?’ We don’t want someone who plays a completely different style. We still want someone who can not only survive, but can score runs against the best bowlers in the world, because you’re never going to get anything out of it. But once you get the chance, you want him to be relentless and score as many runs as possible.”
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Ricky Ponting insists England’s managerial blueprint could see them become Ashes contenders in 2027.
Does Britain have a drinking problem?
“I don’t think they have a drinking problem. I don’t think it’s fair to put them all in that box. The majority of those players are incredibly hardworking and will do everything they can to maximize their potential and play as well as they can for England.”
“Like a lot of teams, there are two or three players who would act irresponsibly with alcohol if given that opportunity. What we’re trying to do is try to find that happy medium.”
“It’s not about drinking and walking away from the game. Cricket is different from a lot of other sports, especially international cricket. If you’re away all year round, even if you’re playing at home, you’re pretty much away.”
“The stress and scrutiny on these multi-format players is intense. So can we get better? Do we need to keep evolving? To be honest, I think the game is. And it’s not a problem I can solve alone. We need to be able to create opportunities and situations for these players to make the right decisions.”
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Harry Brook admits he is lucky to still be England’s white-ball captain after his altercation with a nightclub bouncer on the eve of a match, adding that supporters have a right to be angry at his behavior.
“We can take away the temptation, but like I said, it’s important to find that sweet spot in the middle. Just like with your own kids, if you’re too hard on them, they rebel on one side. For the most part, this team, we try to trust them as much as we can, and they made good decisions.”
“The Harry Brooke and Wellington incident obviously hit us hard, but it didn’t hurt Harry as much, if not more. He’s not the first person to do something like that and probably won’t be the last, but I hope that’s what makes him decide. Going back to that decision, a lot of things that I read and saw, we talked about and discussed all of that.
“We believe that Harry Brooke made a terrible mistake, but he came to us and Harry up to that point was a completely blank slate. Before this Wellington business started, Harry Brooke was committed to England cricket. He said, ‘No, I I don’t want to go to the PL. I want to do what’s best for England cricket and my England cricket career, so I’m going to be suspended for three years. I believe that deserves some recognition.”That’s why we made this decision. ”
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England white-ball cricket captain Harry Brook tried his hand at baseball during practice with the Philadelphia Phillies and managed to hit a home run. Credit: MLB Europe
Is England interested in country cricket?
“If people have the idea[that England don’t care about county cricket]then we have to build bridges. If that’s the perception, then that’s what we need to do. I’ve always tried in this job to not be the guy who moans about county cricket or sits there and criticizes county cricket.
“I’m not sitting here blaming county cricket when we lose the Ashes. When I took this job, the ECB was very decisive about how the game should be played in this country or what happens with county cricket. There’s now a change where county games dictate the decisions that are made for that.”
“In terms of Brendan, it’s also not true that he doesn’t have any care, but Brendan is doing the job 12 months out of the year at the moment. He’s full-time in both formats now. That trade is, in fact, when he’s not in a series, when he’s not on tour, I mean there’s so much cricket work at the moment that I would like him to step away from cricket.”
Brendon McCullum (left) remains England head coach, but Rob Key rubbishes notions of a “major falling out” between the New Zealander and Test captain Ben Stokes.
“I want him to just use the tools and not have to worry about other things and our system, the whole selection process which is quite huge, from the scouting system to the selection of the main team, to what we are putting in place as a county, what we call the county insight group.
“Hopefully we’ll have two coaches from the First Division and two coaches from the Second Division who will have input into our selection and when you’re playing for your county trying to get into the England squad, you know when people are looking at you, you know there are people out there.
“We cover every game and we pick players from county games, so we don’t agree with everything people say there because we work hard to make sure that’s not the case. But we need to get better at it.”
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