Retaining McCullum

The wilting of England’s once-distinctive playing style and culture under the glare of Ashes cricket, resulting in a dismal result against an under-strength Australian side, incensed large portions of the cricketing public. Four years ago, an Ashes series surrendered 4-0 against the challenging backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic cost coach Chris Silverwood and director of cricket Ashley Giles their jobs, with Joe Root stepping down as captain a couple of months later.

This time, it is different. When justifying the decision to retain en bloc a management group who have failed to win any of their four marquee Test series – against Australia and India – since taking over in 2022, Gould cited the example of his father, the former football player and manager Bobby Gould.

“We keep a very close eye on all of our supporters,” Gould said when asked if he had a gauge on the mood of England fans. “We are not going to select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign. We’re going to do it based on good judgment, objective views.

“My old man was a football manager. Sacking was part of the job. It didn’t necessarily do the right thing. Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That’s not the route that we’re going to take. I’ve seen the driving ambition and determination that we’re lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move on forward.

“It may not be the popular route. It may not be the easiest route, but I think it’s the right route.”

Gould said there had been “a lot of consideration as to what is the right mix of leadership”, but turned back to football again when saying: “Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership. It’s not like football where there’s a single point of failure or success with a manager.”

So McCullum, Key and Stokes have been given a mandate until the end of 2027 with minor tweaks around the fringes. Gould said he did not want any of them to be “too different”, because “to be an appropriate leader, you have to be authentic”.