I don’t like calling for heads, but Brendon McCullum must be sacked as England coach - Michael Vaughan
To lose to New Zealand at home is a very significant result. The last time that happened in a series of more than two matches was 1999, which is so long ago that my mate Phil Tufnell was still playing and I had not even debuted. The last time England lost a three-match series at home against anyone was 2012, and the end of Andrew Strauss’ time in charge.
Results like this do not come along often, and when you put it on the back of the Ashes winter, which was so poorly planned, and the failure to beat India last summer, you know something major has to give.
I take no pleasure in doing this. I don’t like calling for heads. At the end of the Ashes I tried very hard not to. But I can’t cope with watching English cricket be so wasteful any more. As a former captain I cannot stand by and watch us play like this against a New Zealand team who are down to their bare bones after injury and the retirement of Kane Williamson. This was a week of opportunity, and what they were always going to be judged on.
There is so much skill and talent in the England changing room but it is not being harnessed at all. If all we have is to just keep going harder, and it’s been exposed again, on the back of chaos off the field, which has been happening too regularly, then it is time for change.
The two Richards, CEO Gould and chairman Thompson, need to understand that vague and unprovable taglines about being the most inclusive sport are all very well, and so is the successful sale of the Hundred. But the shop window for the game in this country, and the thing the fans truly care about, is the England teams, and particularly the men’s Test team.
They have overseen this. There should have been change after the Ashes, and the management of Stokes has been completely wrong in recent weeks. Ebony Rainford-Brent is still the only cricket voice on the ECB Board, because Ed Smith does not start until the autumn when his tenure as MCC president expires. That is just plain wrong.
England lost a bad toss this week, but they played some seriously dumb cricket. On the third evening they were still in the game, but bowled Shoaib Bashir for a nine-over spell from the Radcliffe Road End where seamers could have exploited the uneven bounce. Bashir bowled tidily enough and actually had quite a good game, but there is no way Australia or New Zealand would not have had their best quick honing in on those cracks. England do not win the key moments because they do not play with any sense.
The fourth evening was even worse. I actually understood Stokes being sent up to open in his final innings, acting as an agent of chaos. He did his job, knocking 50 off the target. But at that point, you have to recognise that the chaos has been created and it is time to be smart. Instead they kept going, and they left themselves completely doomed in the game.
Harry Brook’s innings was absolutely dreadful. Whose idea was it to send him in at four, to slog? Given the talent he has, and the record, he is selling himself so far short. There is no way that can be the last innings he plays before he takes over as Test captain. England failed to recognise that Stokes had injured Will O’Rourke and Ben Sears was struggling too, so New Zealand were down to three bowlers. Just play normally, and bat. There is too much maverick thinking, and the team were caught up in the emotions of Ben’s retirement. Watching the partnership between Jamie Smith and Gus Atkinson on the fifth day actually made me more angry and frustrated. They had a chance in this chase, and they played like they were having a laugh.
Brook just cannot do that job if McCullum is still in charge. It is yin and yin. You cannot have that. I am more than happy for Brook to do the job with someone else, but not McCullum. It would be chaos.
As a management group you want a pool of players to be candidates to lead. England have Brook, or Joe Root as a safe pair of hands. But he is England’s greatest batsman, the most important player in the team now, and we are talking about him captaining in an Ashes team at home without an allrounder?
My preference would be for the ECB to go cap in hand to Andy Flower to run our team. Ideally all formats, but if it’s just Tests, that is fine too. If there is a stumbling block around the IPL, find a way to get around it, because the truth is that our players go to the tournament and England do not play any important cricket at that time of year because of it. Flower could job-share if required.
Ideally I would have Mo Bobat, who has done so much good work in English cricket and at Royal Challengers Bangalore, as well, and then someone like Richard Dawson to be in the backroom team, possibly as white-ball coach. I think Darren Lehmann could have a role too because he would demand smart, positive cricket.
While I was broadcasting on Thursday evening, there was a portion of the crowd singing very rude things about Key. He is not what they were saying, he is a good person who has tried hard in this job. But that is the feeling of many, and I have never heard England cricket fans say those things about someone in our game. I have never had so many messages overnight from people who care about English cricket. Fans are bored with this type of cricket and players not getting better.
I expect there will be change, and it is sad that it has come to this as I think everyone involved is a good person doing it for the right reasons. But something has to give.
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