Bucket hats, nighthawks and all the golf. Some of England’s most incredible wins, achieved in breathtaking style. New Zealand at Trent Bridge, India at Edgbaston, Pakistan in Rawalpindi.
For a while, England were more than a cricket team. They were a feeling, a movement and a phenomenon. They flickered occasionally over McCullum’s next three years in charge, but nothing like that heady first year.
As to why the ride careered off the rails, McCullum gave us a clue on his very first day in the job.
“I don’t coach technically,” said McCullum at Lord’s in May 2022. “I understand the techniques, but for me it’s more around man-management and trying to provide the right environment for the team to go out and be the best versions of themselves.”
McCullum inherited an experienced group, players who had been flattened by a run of one win in 17 and stifled by Covid restrictions: Stokes, Anderson, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood.
The New Zealander liberated them, providing a freedom they knew how to use.
When the time came to build a new England team – given the age profile, this was always likely on McCullum’s watch – his style was not suited to moulding a new generation.
Jamie Smith, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir – even Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope. Their Test careers under McCullum started strongly. When they needed more, he could not provide it.
McCullum admitted to over-estimating the younger players’ preparedness for the hostility faced on and off the field during an Ashes tour. The outcome was a 4-1 loss so damaging that England cannot rid themselves of the stench.
At the end of that series, McCullum spoke in Sydney like a man who knew his time was up.
“I’m open to evolution and some nipping and tucking, but without being ultimately able to steer the ship maybe there is someone better,” he said.
He survived, along with Stokes and Key, albeit now with Bazball-lite: a curfew, restrictions on booze, a team chef and a beefed-up backroom staff. For a man who made no apologies for an “informal” environment, it did not feel very McCullum.
