The Ashes might be over but the backlash hasn't stopped. The UK media hasn't stopped in stripping down away the failures of the tour Down Under. Not surprisingly, they are targeting the behaviour and off-field antics of the team. There's also major criticism regarding head coach, Brendon McCullum.
A number of former England players turned commentators and journalists have dissected just where this series went so horribly wrong. Specifically, they pointed to a loose play style that was emblematic of culture inside the group â both on the field and off it â that needs to change, along with ill-advised preparation.
While British media have reported that head of cricket, Rob Key and head coach, Brendon McCullum, are both likely to survive this Ashes letdown, it came with the proviso they are both willing to make improvements to the current England set-up.
What exactly that means may well determine if that ends up happening, with McCullum in particular seeming resistant to widespread changes when interviewed by former English cricket great Nasser Hussain on Sky Sports UK.
The under-fire coach told Hussain his team was better than it was when he took the job in 2022 and was not exactly sold on the idea of making major changes. "It is not about ripping up our script completely. From when we took over to where we are now, we are a better cricket team," he said.
"I take offence to (any suggestion I donât want to evolve). I am not against evolution, I welcome it. I am not rigid in my beliefs but I have conviction in my methods. That doesnât mean you are blind to progress but to throw everything out that has worked in pursuit of something completely unknown doesnât make any sense."
That attitude, as expected, hasn't gone down well back in Blighty. English Test great, Sir Geoffrey Boycott, declared the side won't change "unless this arrogant regime is ended" and said McCullum, Key and captain Ben Stokes "sold a lie for three years."
"Englandâs three wise men turned out to be the three stooges," Boycott wrote. "McCullum and Key said they had been planning for the Ashes all that time but this was a slapstick tour riddled with mistakes and they deserved to lose 4-1."
"McCullumâs philosophy is do your own thing. Play without a care in the world. Express yourselves and if you get out, no problem, itâs not your fault. Nobody tells them off, no accountability, and nobody gets dropped so they just keep doing the same daft things. Why should the players change, adapt or improve if the coach and captain are okay with it?"
He added: "Of course they donât want to lose their jobs. Itâs a cushy number and so well paid. How can we believe any of them when for three years they have all been so intractable in their views? Does a leopard change its spots? How do we know they wonât just carry on as normal?
"Joe Root has said it would be silly to change the management team. Really? After losing the Ashes so badly would any company or sporting entity say to their management team: âthe same again pleaseâ? Sport is a results business. This trio would not last five minutes in football or the commercial world."
"Brendon is a gambler who thinks he is always going to win his money back. Thatâs how casinos always win in the end. How many hopefuls start well but finish in tears? The reason is they donât know when to stop or change their routine. I just think Brendon has taken us as far as he can and we need someone else to take England to the next level."
Boycott wasn't the only one to feel that way, with The Daily Mailâs Lawrence Booth also calling for McCullum to be sacked.
"This was not Englandâs worst Ashes tour among their many failures in Australia down the years. But it was arguably their most disappointing," he wrote. "Of the 15 players they used across the five Tests, only Jacob Bethell and Josh Tongue can leave knowing they enhanced their reputations. Thatâs a ratio almost as miserable as Englandâs record in Australia since their triumphant visit 15 years ago: one win, two draws, 17 defeats. Quite simply, the position of head coach Brendon McCullum is no longer tenable."
"This should hurt more than the whitewashes of 2006-07 and 2013-14, more than the 4â0 hammerings of 2017-18 and 2021-22."
The lack of execution was blamed on McCullumâs greatest failing; an unwillingness to add further expertise to a staff which was "undermanned and overly compliant."
"The absence of a fielding coach was reflected in the number of catches England put down â 19, by some counts â and there was no one in the dressing-room to challenge McCullumâs orthodoxies," Booth added.
"Englandâs coach needs to operate a tighter ship, possibly with a coaching staff not of his choosing, if he is to be in the job come the first Test against New Zealand at Lordâs in June. Soon after the Sydney Test was over, McCullum admitted: âAm I for being told what I have to do? Of course I am not.â And it is his single-mindedness, his suspicion of corporate culture, that should now bring his working relationship with Stokes to a premature end."
"The start of the T20 World Cup is less than a month away, and there is little sense making a change before then. But it is hard to see how the Test team can function if it is overseen by a coach resentful at the straitjacket he is obliged to wear."
"When you are giving those messages to younger players who donât know their game as well and are still finding their feet, then maybe things are harder to implement," Broad added.
Beyond the messaging, the general consensus from the UK media on Friday was that both the teamâs culture and aggressive on-field approach needed to change moving forward.
The issue of Englandâs culture had already been thrust into the spotlight earlier in the series after claims of a drinking session in Noosa, which was then exacerbated by a video appearing to show Ben Duckett drunk and slurring his words on a night out.
Then, on Thursday, Harry Brook issued an apology after news came out of an altercation at a New Zealand nightclub with a bouncer ahead of the Ashes.
Writing in The Telegraph, chief sports writer, Oliver Brown, labelled the Ashes series as 'Bazballers go large,' and said that McCullum likely needs to pay the price for allowing the creation of a "dismally amateurish" culture."
He added that McCullumâs assertion that his players "handled themselves pretty well across the board" was a "final, absurd statement from a tour full of them, and that he felt comfortable saying so beggars belief."
"The Bazball Kool-Aid is now an unpalatable potion, with the necessity for change self-evident,â Brown wrote. âWe are not in the 1980s any longer, when drinking scrapes were an accepted part of tour tapestry. This is an era where the best teams throw everything possible at winning, from data analysts to watt bikes to cryotherapy chambers."
âThe fact that McCullum neglected even the absolute basics, failing to appoint a fielding coach or to schedule proper dry runs of the conditions England would face in Australia, is unforgivable. It is painfully obvious that the incumbent cannot remain, with McCullum already talking about his resistance to change. If he refuses to change, then it is the man himself who must be changed."
Earlier, former England Test captain, Michael Vaughan, declared that the drinking culture "must be cleaned up" in a column for The Telegraph UK, while the BBCâs Stephan Shemilt wrote that the teamâs Bazball moniker could "perhaps cruelly be renamed Boozeballâ considering recent events.
"This was supposed to be Englandâs big opportunity to finally compete in Australia after a miserable run of one away series win in 40 years. But it has been a shambles of a tour," Shemilt added.
"Preparation that many regard as not fit for purpose. Then awful shots, dropped catches and scattergun bowling when the series began. Meanwhile, off the field, there has been concern over England players drinking in bars. In what was supposed to be the crowning glory of the âBazballâ project, Englandâs moniker could be perhaps cruelly be renamed âBoozeballâ after the latest revelations."
Shemilt was right to later point out that England is far from the only team "who like a drink." âTravis Head turned up to Australiaâs training before the fourth Test a little dusty following the Adelaide celebrations," he wrote. "But Australia had won the series and Head had made three centuries. These episodes combine to be a further damning indictment of the concern that there is a slack culture around the England team that has manifested itself in mediocre results and performances."
"Once, the 'Bazball' regime was about getting the best out of proven Test cricketers who had lost their way in a struggling team - Anderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes, Bairstow and Mark Wood. Now, a younger generation have been found wanting on the biggest stage, at least in part because they have not been given the right grounding at the highest level. To Brook and plenty of his team-mates, drinking, not bothering with fielding practice and a lack of accountability for awful batting is all they know."
The Telegraphâs Nick Hoult declared the series "will be remembered as English cricketâs great missed opportunity" and "cause a lifetime of regret for some," writing that "underprepared England players shrivelled under pressure when it mattered, playing too many risky shots, bowling too short and dropping catches."
Which brings us back to the topic of Bazball. Stokes finally admitted in his press conference after the fifth dayâs play that a revamp may be needed, while Vaughan demanded a "stubborn" England needed to have some "honest conversations."
Expanding on that point in his column for The Telegraph UK, Vaughan singled out 22-year-old Jacob Bethell â and the nature of his second-innings century â as the future of English cricket. "It is an uncomfortable truth that the three hundreds they scored on this trip, two for Joe Root and one for Jacob Bethell, were scored by technicians, players who bat time because their technique allows them," Vaughan wrote.
"For so long in English cricket technique has been a dirty word. How dare you mention technique, you old has-been? How dare you speak about batting time because you have to have a strong technique to play against high-class bowling from the likes of Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland. To play against them consistently, you have to have an amazing technique, and mindset."
"I would send the footage of Bethellâs innings around the English game, to all our coaches. That is how you play the longest format. Bethell dominated through defence, leaving the ball and waiting for the ball to hit. I can remember him hitting one ball in the air, and that was to get to his hundred with the field up."
Broad made a similar point on Sky Sports, calling Bethellâs ton a "proper Test innings" that "left Ricky Ponting purring." "We hear about playing with freedom but that doesnât mean donât play smart. Jamie Smithâs shot in the first innings at the SCG was terrible cricket," Broad added.
"Look at the way Jacob Bethell batted in his hundred. Outside of the highlights of his boundaries, he defended and left the ball - he was on 99 for 20 minutes or so.â"
Agnew, meanwhile, wrote that it has become clear that McCullumâs methods "do not work with this set of players in Test cricket," listing Smith, Brook, Ollie Pope and Gus Atkinson as just a few of the players who have fallen victim to Bazballâs expectations.
Calls for a major overhaul to the England Test team after their 4-1 Ashes loss continue to ring out across the Old Dart with coach Brendon McCullum and his batting line-up firmly in the firing line.
Former England batter, Mark Ramprakash, was one of the most bullish pundits about his nationâs chances before Novemberâs series opener in Perth, writing in The Guardian: "I canât remember ever being so confident before an away Ashes," but he now admits that he was sucked in by the bluff and bluster.
After McCullum and Ben Stokesâ side failed to live up to Ramprakashâs pre-series expectations, the 56-year-old, who piled on 35 659 first-class runs at an average of 53.14, believes the hierarchy at the England and Wales Cricket Board should be on the phone to his former team-mate, Alec Stewart, to take charge.
"McCullum and (Rob) Key have selected some players with very moderate records in first-class cricket, at times based on nothing more than hunches, and then they have overseen a gradual erosion of the specialist coaches there to support them," Ramprakash wrote in The Guardian of the coach and managing director.
"We have seen a lack of technical proficiency in some players, seemingly the direct result of the abandonment of technical models in coaching. Have we appointed the right people to coach not just the senior side but the Lions and at all levels, people with the drive and the experience necessary to improve players? Because I see people getting promoted who have just come from playing careers, people who have the right mates rather than the right qualifications."
The desire for the England side to get back to basics is a burning one. English fans were given a taste of it at times throughout the Australian summer but the recklessness of Bazball was on show more often than not.
That "rubbish" could cost several England batters their international future. The SCG has been the final destination of their Test career for 14 English cricketers since 2003 and only for Paul Collingwood in 2011 was it by choice. At least one player has never donned an England cap again after the Sydney Test of every Ashes series this century.
That trend may continue if sweeping changes are made.
The Timesâ Steve James analysed every England batter throughout the series and while there was no question mark over Joe Rootâs place in the side nor Jacob Bethellâs, who is "here to stay for a long time," every other player could be facing the axe or major consequences, including captain Stokes and his deputy, Harry Brook.
Revelations of the latterâs boozy encounter with a bouncer the night before an ODI in New Zealand in the lead-up to the Ashes has not sat well and James believes the white-ball skipper should be removed for any leadership roles.
"I thought those days of drinking the night before a game were gone with the peanuts once paid to county cricketers. It is an act that is very hard to forgive and, in my view, he should have been stripped of any leadership responsibilities immediately," James wrote.
"Maybe that incident explains some of his batting in the series: a player considering himself both invincible and untouchable. Some humility would not go amiss, which can be manifested in some sager shot selection."
As for Stokes, while he was praised for digging in to compile half-centuries in Brisbane and Adelaide, he managed just 184 runs at an average of 18.40 across the five Tests. Much maligned trio Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett and Jamie Smith all contributed more with the willow than their captain.
It is why James believes Stokes may have to slide further down the order. "Last year, Stokes unwisely toyed with copying Brookâs high, almost stationary, back lift and, though he has since tried to return to his previous down-and-back-up method, he is nowhere near the player he once was," he wrote.
"McCullumâs rhetoric has been: play this way or you wonât play at all. Actually what has been really damning about this trip is that Englandâs best performances â Joe Rootâs two centuries, Jacob Bethell in Sydney, even Stokes himself with his 83 in Adelaide â have not followed that method at all," Ramprakhash wrote.
"Root backs his defence, shows good concentration, knocks balls into gaps. Not for him the macho, crash-bang-wallop, knock-the-bowler-off-his-length, run-towards-the-danger rubbish that led so many others to give their wickets away."
"Sometimes the hands are more important than the feet in generating movement and strong positions, and Stokes is too static now, often camped well behind the crease line. Maybe it is time for him to retreat to No.7, where he had success against New Zealand last year, and admit that the captaincy and his bowling are more important."
Outperforming the skipper might not be able to save the opening pair, however. Crawley was Englandâs third leading run scorer for the series - behind Root and Brook - but with an average of 31.18 from 64 Tests, he has been unable to deliver on his promise.
"Time to go, sadly and I say sadly because he is so good to watch when in full flow," James wrote. As for Duckett, who arrived down under as one of the worldâs leading batters in all formats, he may have enough credits in the bank. You suspect that he will get another go but I would be tempted by a completely new opening pair as I fear we have already seen the best of him," James wrote.
"He will not be helping himself by being at the Indian Premier League before next summerâs Test series."
A lack of red ball cricket is a major problem for this England team. International duty combined with white ball commitments in the IPL and The Hundred make England players a rare commodity in county cricket but even when they do have a gap in a busy schedule, their choice not to play long form matches has come under scrutiny.
Crawley bizarrely sat out county matches after The Hundred, while they infamously avoided playing any formal tour games in Australia. That decision hurt several members of their squad, most notably pace bowler, Matthew Potts, who copped the full wrath of Travis Head in Sydney after not having played a competitive fixture for more than a month.
"Wasnât the root of the problem, as any idiot should see, the utter disregard that Brendon McCullum, coach of our wounded Test team, and his masters at the England and Wales Cricket Board have for county cricket?" The Telegraphâs Simon Heffer wrote.
"Wasnât it a basic contempt for first-class cricket that caused them to feel it unnecessary for England to play more than a casual match before the Perth Test, against our own second XI? The stupidity this suggests is so devastating that it is hard to know where to begin. Why in the past did far better teams feel it necessary to play three or four first-class matches against state and representative sides in Australia before the Tests?"
"Why did they play another two or three such games between Tests, allowing out-of-form players a game in which to try to regain it before the next international match? More fundamentally, why would they never take on tour men who had played hardly any county cricket the previous season?"
Australia were much lauded for the likes of Scott Boland and Michael Neser having impressive Ashes campaigns off the back of being selectors for years of success at domestic level. England, on the other hand, have been criticised for ignoring players of that mould and the benefits that come from the first class game.
Bazball believers often exclaimed that Stokes, McCullum and co. were saving Test cricket but Heffer believes they may actually be contributing to its demise with the ECB inflicting blow after blow. "Our international cricketers cannot be any good at Test cricket so long as this deeply complex form of the game is relegated to a lower priority than the white-ball game, which requires a different set of psychological and motor skills," he said. "All this appears so bleeding obvious that it is astonishing that one has to say it. But if we donât do it, Test cricket is over."
Meanwhile, speaking to foxsports.com.au, Australia legend Adam Gilchrist said for all the waves of criticism from the UK, he still didnât expect to see major changes from the ECB. He said that England appears to be suffering from a cultural issue that has impacted the teamâs ability to execute its plans â though the majority involved appear unfazed by external noise about it.
"They donât strike me as a group that tend to care too much about other peopleâs opinions or points of view," he told foxsports.com.au. "Iâm sure it seems like they will probably stroll along with their methods or their philosophy. It is up to them to decide, really, but all Iâm seeing and reading is that their is staunch support of the management group from the leaders and the players."
"Iâve got no idea which way they are going to go but clearly it would seem culturally, whether it is right or wrong, but culturally something seems to be amiss in allowing them to get their best performances on the board."
"I keep hearing about how they all believe there is so much talent in this team, but talent means zero unless you find a way to execute the programs using that talent. And they clearly were not able to. And again, it is not just about what they were doing. It is mitigated by what is a very, very good Australian team who had a lot of experience and some great contributors, so much better than what England did."
A lengthy new report has detailed fresh concerns over the antics of some England cricket team members during the recent failed Ashes tour. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has launched an immediate and âthoroughâ review of the demoralising 4-1 series loss to Australia.
As soon as the series was over, ECB chief executive, Richard Gould, released a statement calling the teamâs failure to regain the Ashes "deeply disappointing."
The report began with an anecdote focusing on fast bowler Brydon Carse, who was at a Perth cafe with Zak Crawley and Harry Brook the morning after England lost the first Test inside two days.
"Carse put his hand in his pocket, and accidentally dislodged what eyewitnesses described as thousands of dollars in cash that flew into the air," Hoult and Macpherson wrote in The Telegraph. âPatrons of the cafe, including English cricket journalists enjoying a quiet coffee, were left scrambling to grab the cash and return it to Carse Crawley looked mortified."
"The incident, whether innocent or otherwise, acts as an emblem for an Ashes tour that was loose, careless and at times downright baffling."
The article also detailed several other claims: Senior England officials early on in the Australian tour felt "uneasy about the planning, or lack of it, for the Ashes"; at least one senior England player arrived in Perth early ahead of schedule "because he turned up on tour overweight" and Some England players, staying at Crown Towers in Perth, frequented the casinoâs tables â âoften well-oiled" â in full view of fans.
A chasm between captain Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum âbegan to divergeâ ahead of the second Test in Brisbane, with the duo at odds over whether the team needed extra training after the early first Test finish. McCullum, "to the surprise of some onlookers," struggled to hide his frustration in the England changerooms as Australiaâs tail wagged on Day 3 at the Gabba. The report stated: "One insider believed McCullum felt Stokes was blinking under pressure."
With England facing defeat at the Gabba, "terse words were exchanged" among the English camp on the morning of Day 4.
After losing the third Test in Adelaide â and consequently the Ashes â Stokes asked his players not to head out on the town ⌠but the order was "not obeyed by all players, with at least one spotted out later than the Australians."
Former England bowler Stuart Broad has revealed the awkward thing that happened to Brendon McCullumâs side and the teamâs management while they travelled home on the plane from Australia following their disastrous Ashes tour.
England had lost the Ashes before Christmas and went 3-0 down following defeats in Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. A victory in the two-day Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) saw England regain some pride, but normal service resumed in the fifth and final Test in Sydney.
Shortly after the end of the series, it emerged that white-ball captain and vice-captain of the Test team Harry Brook had been slapped with a ÂŁ30,000 fine for his conduct after reports emerged about a âlate-night altercationâ with a bouncer in New Zealand ahead of the Ashes.
A report from The Telegraph revealed that Brook was close to being sacked as white-ball captain following an investigation by the teamâs management after he was "struck by a bouncer" who would not allow him entry into a nightclub.
The following day, he played in Englandâs third ODI in Wellington, which the side lost by two wickets to round off a 3-0 series whitewash defeat.
Questions continue to be asked of the overall culture prevalent in the England cricket team after their 4-1 humbling at the hands of Australia in the Ashes. There was a considerable gulf in quality between the two sides, with England playing almost no warm-up games in the run-up to the series and consequently being accused of slacking off between the Tests in terms of discipline. Fast bowling great James Anderson has said that he was puzzled with captain Ben Stokes appreciating the efforts of the players in his squad.
"When I saw Stokes come out and say, the way (Josh) Tongue and (Brydon) Carse have just run in like consistently, I had a Roy Keane moment," said Anderson on BBC Radio. "I was like, thatâs your job. If youâre not willing to run in all day for your team, donât bother. Youâre in the wrong sport."
Anderson took the example of Australia pacer, Mitchell Starc, who was player of the series for taking 31 wickets and even scoring 163 runs. "Starc, for me, was the absolute standout of the series. He bowled on Day 5 of the final Test as quick as he had bowled all series long. He was consistent with his speeds. But that is what you expect from all your bowlers. That is the standard. It always annoys me (when someone says) âcanât fault your effortsâ. Well, the effort shouldnât be a thing. It should just be in you."
Stokes had said in the press conference after the fifth Test that Englandâs efforts in the Ashes canât be questioned and that they lost due to shoddy execution. "Weâve dropped a lot of catches on this tour which have been very costly to the overall situation of the games. In terms up of stepping up, I can never fault anyoneâs commitment or energy that theyâve given into this. We havenât performed well, we know that, we hold our hands up to that. But no one should question the care and commitment to try and go out there and give it your absolute best. Itâs just been down to the lack of execution," Stokes said.
No batter in the England Test squad apart from Joe Root care about putting value to their wicket as they know that they will never be left out of the squad, India batting great, Sunil Gavaskar, has said. Gavaskar acknowledged the fact that Brendon McCullum was a great player and brought a freshness to England cricket as a coach before stating that once it wore off, they were found to be batsmen who couldnât do much once pitches gave bowlers some assistance.
Gavaskarâs criticism comes in the wake of Englandâs abject performance in their 4-1 defeat to Australia in the Ashes. While a number of English former cricketers had predicted the side to win the series, Gavaskar said that their defeat comes as no surprise only to non-English fans. âValuing playing for your country and putting a minimum price of a century on your wicket is something only the great Joe Root does. The others could not be bothered, as they knew they were unlikely to be left out of the squad,â wrote Gavaskar in his column for SportStar.
"What the media calls fearless cricket today often looks more like couldnât-care-less cricket. With the guarantee of a central contract and the various T20 leagues around the cricketing world, there is no worry about how to put food on the table, which was the case when these facilities were not there and losing a Test place meant going back to mundane first-class cricket, where one hardly earned enough, let alone saved for a rainy day."
Englandâs tendency to rarely ever drop batsmen under the leadership of McCullum and captain Ben Stokes has been criticised in the past. It has led to players getting to have careers lasting well over 50 Test matches despite averaging in the early to mid-30s. Examples of this being opener Zak Crawley (64 Tests at an average of 31.18) and Ollie Pope (64 Test at an average of 34.55), although the latter had been sacked as vice-captain before the start of the series and eventually seems to have lost his place now to Jacob Bethell.
Gavaskar said that he doesnât begrudge current cricketers earning more from the sport. "As Sir Don Bradman said, it should be the endeavour of every cricketer to try and leave the game in a better place than when he found it. So, when the modern cricketer makes good money, it is a great thing, as it encourages and draws more youngsters to the game," said Gavaskar.
"That is why it is disappointing when some forget their responsibility to the game and play reckless cricket, letting their team and country down. Winning and losing are part of sport, but the effort has to be wholehearted. How many in the England team that lost the Ashes series can put their hands on their hearts and say that they gave it everything, not just physically but, more crucially, temperamentally, in the series?"
Brendon McCullum said there could be "someone better" to be England head coach if he is not "able to steer the ship." McCullum and director of cricket Rob Key are set to be given the opportunity to remain in charge despite England's dismal 4-1 Ashes series defeat in Australia.
McCullum has held talks with Gould and ECB chairman Richard Thompson. The New Zealander is due to lead England in their white-ball series in Sri Lanka in less than two weeks and the T20 World Cup that follows.
The 44-year-old said he is "keen" to remain in his job, but it would "depend what changes" are imposed upon him.
"I've a firm conviction in a lot of my methods," said McCullum. "I'm not against evolution and not against progress. I encourage that across all sports, not just cricket. And all aspects of life as well. So I'm not against that. However, you need to stand for something. You need to believe in your methods and you need to believe in how you go about things."
I don't disagree with anything that's been said above. There are a lot of things that went against England on the tour. However, they brought everything on themselves. Vast changes are needed. Above all, the discipline and culture need altering. A change of leadership can possibly ensure this.
More focus on the County Championship should take place.