I listened to Brendon McCullum all day – he learned nothing from Ashes debacle

As you walk into the offices of Rothesay in London’s West End, the company’s slogan – “Securing pensions” – looms large.

On Friday, the sponsors of the English Test summer were hosting an event with head coach Brendon McCullum, the man who continues to pay into his England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) pension despite his team’s 4-1 Ashes mauling in Australia last winter.

Many fans were left aghast when McCullum held onto his job despite a disaster-class of a tour that laid bare the laissez-faire culture that had evolved under his watch.

When the announcement came in March that both he and England’s managing director of cricket Rob Key had retained their positions, we were told by ECB chief executive Richard Gould, that McCullum had promised to “adapt” and “evolve”.

But has he?

McCullum – or Baz 2.0 – looks and sounds very much like the same man who found himself out of his depth in Australia last winter. Despite a few new buzzwords, his message is almost identical too.

Talk of sticking to Bazball’s aggressive mindset was caveated with the need for “refinement” and “sharpening” the team’s approach.

As Alan Partridge might say: “They’ve rebadged it, you fool.”

Signs of real change come from actions, not words. And McCullum’s actions so far this summer are indicative of a man who is unrepentant about his methods, mindset and approach. In a way, you have to admire his chutzpah.

The fact he only turned up in the country last Friday – 11 days after the squad for the first Test against New Zealand was announced – was not a great look. Not after winter when some of the off-the-field incidents were as embarrassing as what happened on the field. And not when Key has spoken about the need to reconnect the link between an England team that is now in a rebuilding phase and county cricket.

McCullum should not be expected to spend months trekking around the shires trying to spot players – the ECB have a whole talent identification system designed to do that.

Yet he should have travelled to the UK from New Zealand at least a couple of weeks earlier to give the impression he is interested in the wider ecosystem of English cricket.

This is all a long way from 2022, when he took over the Test team and liberated an experienced dressing-room who had been cocooned in Covid bio-bubbles for more than two years.

Initially, the cricket was thrilling. Even when results tailed off – including being beaten 4-1 in India – McCullum had credit in the bank.

Yet last winter was a tipping point. Having lost old heads such as Jonny Bairstow, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, the approach needed tweaking for a younger, more inexperienced group. That inability to evolve was brutally exposed in Australia. The credit has now well and truly run dry. And the ECB knows it.

That’s why the first time he spoke publicly this summer was not at Rothesay HQ but in a pre-recorded in-house ECB interview earlier this week. This was the ECB, keen to control the PR message, attempting to give him a soft landing back into the spotlight. They still missed.

Having kept his job after a wide-ranging review into the Ashes, McCullum was asked if he’d actually read the review. “Well, I’ve read bits of it,” came a reply that doesn’t help perceptions that he is light on details and substance.

His appearance in London on Friday at least gave us more of a glimpse into what, if anything, might change this summer.

Yet the whole thing was media-managed to within an inch of its life, such is the ECB’s paranoia following the Ashes.

Unlike last year’s event at the same location, when Key and wicketkeeper Jamie Smith were the guests, there was no opportunity for the Rothesay workers to ask questions this time. Maybe opening up the floor to Joe Public was too much of a risk?

There was then a long wait for the written media to speak to McCullum as he did a round of broadcast interviews. Even when they were done, there was a lengthy briefing for McCullum from England’s excellent media manager Danny Reuben.

In all, the event ran half an hour over time.

What did we learn? Not a great deal. McCullum, to his credit, was polite. In fact, he is likeable. But there was little substance on show.

The Ashes are now in the past. “You can’t fight the war that’s gone,” he said. The next series against Australia is at home next summer. Having not won the Ashes since 2015, it’s in everybody’s interests that the coach finds redemption in that series.

The fear is that not enough has changed to make that possible.

The new approach? “I still want us to play brave and positive cricket,” he said. “I’d like us to be slightly smarter on occasions.”

How he’ll do that is not clear, although there was a concession that his message hadn’t “landed” quickly enough with some players in Australia. After four years in the job, that’s not great.

As always, results will dictate what comes next. If England can start the summer with a resounding win at Lord’s next week much of the noise will stop.

But if results go south – and England’s last Test series win came in December 2024 – the ECB will find it very hard to control anything, let alone the message.