McCullum outlines lofty test goal
Not only is Brendon McCullum intent on lifting England’s woeful test cricket fortunes, he says a strong England side can help the traditional format survive.
The former Black Caps skipper was appointed head coach to a team which has won just one of its last 17 tests.
He reports for duty in the coming days to begin work with new captain Ben Stokes, ahead of the first test against New Zealand starting at Lord’s on June 2.
McCullum, 40, said he was confident that making England a competitive, attractive outfit could provide a lift to the wider test game.
Speaking in an inhouse interview with the England and Wales Cricket Board, he said: ‘‘Test cricket has always been the pinnacle for me and maybe the popularity of it has somehow trended south of late.
‘‘If red-ball cricket is to not just sustain but to thrive, it needs England to be playing an attractive brand of test cricket, which is competing with Australia, India, New Zealand. It’s a big, lofty goal but it’s what is in front of us.
‘‘That is what enthused me, if we can get that right, to get England back to where they – where we – should be, which is top of the pile. Challenging the best teams in the world, playing the brand that appeals to the next generation of talent, then we’re able to get test cricket to a stage where kids are wanting to play it rather than just the short versions.’’
England are now under the guidance of two foreign coaches, with Australian Matthew Mott announced as limited overs coach to work alongside McCullum. Mott was a World Cup-winning coach of Australia’s women’s team.
Turning his message to England fans, McCullum said: ‘‘If we can achieve the ambitions both Stokesy and myself have, it’s going to be a team that is certainly worth following. Hopefully we can play that kind of entertaining – I won’t say cavalier, because that’s probably what other people expect us to do – cricket.
‘‘It’s a pretty simple philosophy but if we get that right, with the talent that exists in the English cricket set-up, hopefully we’ll get results to go in the right direction and build something together.’’
McCullum described Mott as a ‘‘really astute coach’’ who operates ‘‘without ego’’.
On the sharing of multi-format players, he added: ‘‘ Our relationship will be good. There’ll be times when we fight over players, no doubt, but we’ll try and come to the right decision for the player and the right decision for English cricket.’’