Appointment bewilders
McCullum to complain that his players aren’t bashing boundaries like he asked them to.
Then suddenly they will go on a run where anything seems possible. It’s a roller coaster ride. Presumably thatwas what attracted Rob Key, the managing director of England cricket, when he made the astonishing announcement last week. ‘‘Buckle up and get ready for the ride,’’ said Key.
Presumably Key, who has as little experience in his job as McCullum does in his, reckons that if England are going to lose, basement and try to turn them around. The worst that can happen is that you leave them where you find them.
But perhaps the most confronting thing for many Kiwis is the question of loyalty. The usurping of Ross Taylor and premature retirement from international cricket suggests to me that McCullum’s loyalty is primarily to himself. The fact that he is now prepared to coach against his own country rather emphasises that fact.
Wayne Smith told a story recently about Roy Keane leaving Manchester United for Celtic. Keane told the All Blacks players and coaches that as soon as he pulled the Celtic jersey over his head, he realised it was thewrong jersey.
Smith said: ‘‘It made a real impression on me. I kept thinking about that. If I pulled the white jersey over my head would it be the right jersey for me. And I decided at that point that I probably wouldn’t coach against the All Blacks. It’s not set in concrete. But that’s how I felt. It would have been the wrong jersey to pull over the head.’’
Obviously McCullum does not feel the same. That is his professional prerogative. None of whichmeans the timing of his appointment is particularly decent. His first gigwill be to coach England against New Zealand in the upcoming test series which starts at Lords on June 2. McCullum will have captained many of the players he is now coaching against.
Many in the game of cricket believe it to be astonishing that England could overlook aman like Gary Kirsten, who has a proven record as a test coach, in favour of aman who ‘‘firmly believe(s) that test cricket won’t be around in time, because there’s only so many teams that can afford to play it’’.
That is a perfectly decent philosophy, but again it suggests a man who perhaps does not fully believe in the cause. I wish McCullum every success, not least because test cricket needs a competitive England team if it is to prosper, but it remains a bewildering appointment on so many levels.