{"id":366352,"date":"2025-12-23T09:09:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T09:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/366352\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T09:09:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T09:09:18","slug":"england-to-investigate-noosa-trip-as-rob-key-concedes-team-have-played-dumb-cricket-on-ashes-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/366352\/","title":{"rendered":"England to investigate Noosa trip as Rob Key concedes team have played \u2018dumb\u2019 cricket on Ashes tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic\u00a0has launched a Cricket WhatsApp Channel. Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to join.<\/p>\n

England have not even played the Boxing Day Test yet, but the fallout from yet another Ashes defeat in Australia has already been significant.<\/p>\n

Fans want answers as to why a team that was widely regarded as having a chance of becoming only the second side since 1987 to return from Down Under with the urn has been roundly thrashed inside 11 days. As is par for the course \u2014 golf pun intended \u2014 on these tours, people also want heads on a spike.<\/p>\n

Since the 82-run defeat in Adelaide<\/a>, captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum have sought to explain where they think things have gone wrong, with both also stating their intention to carry on<\/a> in their respective roles.<\/p>\n

Now it was the turn of England\u2019s managing director of men\u2019s cricket, Rob Key, to offer his explanation.<\/p>\n

During a 50-minute sit-down interview with written journalists, he outlined why the tourists failed so miserably. Well, 47 minutes actually, due to an excruciatingly hilarious three-minute interruption from the emergency fire alarm test system at Melbourne Cricket Ground. It was the longest Test of the Australian summer so far, etc etc. He explained how:<\/p>\n

The setup would investigate suggestions the four-day break in Noosa descended into a glorified stag do
\nPlayers could have been dropped sooner in the build-up to the series
\nPreparations were far from ideal and the squad has lacked sufficient support staff
\nEngland have played dumb cricket at times.<\/p>\n

Here, The Athletic\u00a0breaks down his explanations for England\u2019s comprehensive defeat.<\/p>\n

\"Rob<\/p>\n

\n Rob Key meets journalists at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (Gareth Copley\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Some players could have been dropped sooner<\/p>\n

England have placed a lot of faith in players they thought would be suited to the challenge of winning the Ashes in Australia, with Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett and Harry Brook identified some time ago as having the required skills and attitude to play the regime\u2019s preferred style of aggressive cricket.<\/p>\n

The top seven batting line-up has remained the same for all three Tests but while Key believes chopping and changing now during the series is less of an issue, he admitted the setup could have better identified whether certain players could cut it a while ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou start looking at some of the decisions we\u2019ve made and think: \u2018Do you know what? Should we have made a change there much sooner?\u2019,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s not right to speculate who those people are at the moment, but they\u2019re the things you look at.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was not difficult to to whom he might be referring, with Ollie Pope desperately struggling for runs at No 3 \u2014 he has 125 increasingly jittery runs at 20.83 \u2014 while Shoaib Bashir probably should not have played so many times as England\u2019s front-line spinner over the last few years if they were not going to pick him on a turning wicket at Adelaide.<\/p>\n

\"Ollie<\/p>\n

\n Ollie Pope (right) talks to coach Brendon McCullum at a net session in Melbourne (Gareth Copley\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Key added: \u201cWe\u2019re so much better than how we\u2019ve played. We had a team that hasn\u2019t played anywhere near its potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid we give the players the best chance to come out here and succeed from the start? I don\u2019t think we did. And that\u2019s on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preparations were not ideal<\/p>\n

McCullum has already conceded that England playing one three-day match at a tiny ground in Lilac Hill against an inexperienced England Lions side might not have been an ideal warm-up.<\/p>\n

England had also played three white-ball one-day internationals (ODIs) in New Zealand before heading out to Australia \u2014 Key conceded they did not serve as ideal preparation, either.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid we give them the best chance to succeed in Perth?\u201d he said. \u201cI thought the bowlers bowled well, I thought we batted poorly.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re trying to hedge your bets a little bit and go: \u2018OK, 50-over cricket (in New Zealand) can be a good opportunity where you get competitive cricket, where batters in particular can start to find form if you\u2019re Joe Root \u2014 people like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat turned out to not go to plan. We ended up in tough early-season conditions out in New Zealand, where the batters actually probably did more harm than good \u2014 Ben Duckett, people like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

England\u2019s opener scored two, one and eight in the three ODIs, and has managed 97 runs at 16.16 in the Ashes to date.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

\n Ben Duckett struggled badly in New Zealand and that form pursued him to Australia (DJ Mills\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you feel like you\u2019re chasing it a little bit because one part of it\u2019s gone,\u201d continued Key. \u201cThen you can\u2019t flip your preparation and go: \u2018Oh, by the way, now we need to play loads of games\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably about a year ago, we had a choice of whether we went to Adelaide and played against an Australian team there, or whether we just went to Perth and tried to control the preparation ourselves. They said to us: \u2018Actually, if you go there, it\u2019s not going to be the WACA or Optus. You\u2019re going to end up at a club ground\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I said: \u2018No, it\u2019s fine, we feel we can control that preparation better\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the conditions at Lilac Hill didn\u2019t replicate (the Test). I don\u2019t think they would have done in Adelaide either. So I don\u2019t necessarily believe that, had we just gone and played there, then we\u2019d be now 3-0 up in the Ashes. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t enough support staff<\/p>\n

England haven\u2019t had a fielding coach since Paul Collingwood stepped back from the setup last summer. With a litany of costly dropped catches \u2014 Australia, by contrast, have been razor sharp in the field<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s been perhaps an overlooked aspect of why they have been beaten so easily yet again.<\/p>\n

As well as McCullum, they have three coaches supporting the team in Australia: fast-bowling coach David Saker, batting coach Marcus Trescothick and spin coach Jeetan Patel.<\/p>\n

Key explained: \u201cWhen we started, I looked at the huddle first day at Lord\u2019s and there were 38 people in there. We wanted to strip all of that back and go: \u2018Right we want the messaging to come from just a few people\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s probably a few spots where we\u2019re weak in terms of our setup at the moment, where we\u2019ve stripped it back too much, and there\u2019s probably a few places we need to start bringing in some of that resource again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"England<\/p>\n

\n England coaches Marcus Trescothick and Brendon McCullum at nets in Perth (Gareth Copley\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

England have played dumb cricket<\/p>\n

Some of England\u2019s dismissals can look horrible. Jamie Smith, heaving straight up in the air when trying to hit his fifth consecutive boundary at Adelaide, springs to mind. Plenty of the dismissals in Perth and Brisbane fall into that category, too.<\/p>\n

Key was asked if the players had been given too much autonomy in terms of how they play their cricket.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cMy view on it is that it\u2019s pretty simple. This has always been Brendon\u2019s thing. There\u2019s a real difference between aggression and dumb, and sometimes we take dumb options.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking to ramp bowlers very early on when you\u2019re on 10 \u2014 stuff like that is dumb cricket. Looking to hit a wide half-volley hard is fine; that\u2019s there to hit.<\/p>\n

\"Jamie<\/p>\n

\n Jamie Smith, having hit four consecutive boundaries, skies a hoick to leg and is caught (Quinn Rooney\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever hidden away from that, to be honest, but it\u2019s a real fine balance between sort of taking away weapons from players and saying, \u2018Don\u2019t do this, don\u2019t do that\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where Brendon works bloody well at just speaking to players one-on-one and just trying to make sure that they make better decisions and not stupid decisions. It doesn\u2019t always look like that, but it\u2019s hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the interview was more of an inquest into England\u2019s failings in Australia rather than a look at what might happen next, given the series is still ongoing, Key stated that he believes McCullum should stay on \u2014 and also that the team and the project need to evolve, no matter who is in charge.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the fate of McCullum, Key and Stokes lies in the hands of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) hierarchy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrendon\u2019s always looking to evolve,\u201d Key said. \u201cWhen we\u2019ve sat down and said: \u2018How are we going to improve? How are we going to get better?\u2019, at no stage has he ever said: \u2018No, no, I\u2019m only doing it this way\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"Rob<\/p>\n

\n Rob Key speaks to Sky Sports\u2019 Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain, a columnist at The Athletic, at the MCG (Gareth Copley\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no question we have to evolve it again. If we get the opportunity, we\u2019d have to make sure we get that right.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The decision on jobs) is out of my hands. The decision for the ECB will be whether or not they want to rip it up and start again, or whether they want to evolve and whether we\u2019re the right people to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrendon is an excellent coach. His record is very good. This is only the third series we\u2019ve lost in four years (following on from away defeats in Pakistan and India).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve mucked up on the big occasions, whether that was the home Ashes series or last summer against India, where we should have won that series as well. The big ones have eluded us. There have been some brilliant moments along the way. I still feel like there\u2019s plenty of life in this whole thing now, but we have to evolve.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the futures of several players and the backroom staff is up in the air, one thing Key insists can\u2019t be tolerated is a drinking culture within the England team.<\/p>\n

Players were pictured drinking during their four-night break in Noosa between the second and third Tests. Key had no issue with the venue on Queensland\u2019s Sunshine Coast being used as a mid-tour getaway \u2014 he pointed out that Harry Brook is due to have just six days at home all winter \u2014 but insisted players drinking excessive amounts of alcohol would be deemed unacceptable.<\/p>\n

\"England<\/p>\n

He also pledged to investigate suggestions that the mid-tour trip, which had been planned for a year as a bonding session for the players, descended into a glorified \u2018stag do\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it goes into where they\u2019re drinking lots and it\u2019s a stag do, all of that type of stuff, that\u2019s completely unacceptable,\u201d he said of Noosa. \u201cI\u2019m not a drinker. A drinking culture doesn\u2019t help anyone in any stretch whatsoever.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything that I\u2019ve heard is that they sat down, had lunch, had dinner, didn\u2019t go out late, all of that, had the odd drink \u2014 I don\u2019t mind that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it goes past that, then that\u2019s an issue as far as I\u2019m concerned. If there are things where people are saying that our players went out and drank excessively, then we\u2019ll be looking into that.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom everything that I\u2019ve heard, they actually were pretty well behaved. Very well behaved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t mind players having a glass of wine over dinner. Anything more than that is ridiculous, really.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic\u00a0has launched a Cricket WhatsApp Channel. Click\u00a0here\u00a0to join. England have not even played the Boxing Day Test…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,11880,85],"class_list":["post-366352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-global-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}