Brendon McCullum insists he is not running a \u201cloose ship\u201d as England\u2019s head coach and, while praising Harry Brook\u2019s on-field leadership, believes the white-ball captain has \u201cwork to do off the field\u201d.<\/p>\n
McCullum was speaking to the media for the first time since the news emerged of Brook\u2019s clash with a nightclub bouncer on the eve of the third one-day international against New Zealand last year. Brook initially told the press that no teammates were with him during the incident before it was reported that Josh Tongue and Jacob Bethell had also been fined by the England and Wales Cricket<\/a> Board.<\/p>\n Brook subsequently released a statement<\/a> last week admitting the presence of others on the night. An eventful tour of Sri Lanka for the 26-year-old \u2013 who struck a series-winning century in the third ODI \u2013 concluded on Tuesday with England\u2019s 12-run victory<\/a> in the final Twenty20.<\/p>\n \u201cHarry Brook is an outstanding leader on the field,\u201d said McCullum. \u201cI think his tactical acumen is as good as I\u2019ve seen in a short period of time for a young man. He has work to do off the field, no doubt, as do some of the other young lads we have in our side and that\u2019s what happens when you come in at 20 and it\u2019s your formative years, growing up on a world stage with spotlight, fame, fortune and pressure that comes with it.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously when we\u2019re made aware of things that haven\u2019t gone right we discipline and we have a stern word and we try and deal with things internally. I don\u2019t think we need to release all of those findings every time something arises to the media. We feel like we deal with them and we\u2019ve dealt with the processes of the last little while, I thought, pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n McCullum said he was made aware of the \u201cfull story\u201d \u2013 that Brook was among teammates \u2013 during the ODI at Wellington in November. \u201cThe boys have made a mistake,\u201d the head coach said. \u201cThey\u2019re not the first ones that have ever done it. They won\u2019t be the last ones that will ever do it. They\u2019ve put their hand up. They\u2019ve been disciplined. They\u2019ve been dealt with. The process was done internally at the ECB which we were all a part of.<\/p>\n \u201cThe boys were under no uncertain terms of how we felt about it but now our job is to support them. To be honest, I find it quite annoying that we keep going on and on about it because these are young men who are under immense pressure and they\u2019ve put their hand up for something they\u2019ve been disciplined for and piling on to them is not helpful for anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n The incident in New Zealand was followed by scrutiny over England\u2019s drinking during the Ashes, with a particular focus on their mid-series break in Noosa. \u201cNoosa is where people go to retire; there was a reason why we chose Noosa,\u201d said McCullum, when asked about his players\u2019 behaviour in Australia. \u201cIt\u2019s being made out as this big stag-do place. It couldn\u2019t be further from that.<\/p>\n Harry Brook (right) speaks with coach Brendon McCullum during an England nets session. Photograph: Gareth Copley\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cYou were trying to bring a team together, to be able to ensure that they remain super-tight as a group under the sternest of examinations out in Australia. They didn\u2019t go overboard at any stage, in my opinion. To my knowledge, they didn\u2019t go overboard.\u201d<\/p>\n Nonetheless, Brook confirmed last month that a midnight curfew had been introduced for the white-ball tour of Sri Lanka. When it was put to the head coach that this sounded like an \u201cun-Brendon McCullum\u201d move, he replied: \u201cIf you go back to the day that I walked into the job, the first thing I said to these boys is don\u2019t do anything that lands you on the front page of the paper and nothing ever good happens after midnight.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not against making sure that these boys are controlled in a manner. It\u2019s not micromanagement. It\u2019s looking after them to ensure they don\u2019t make mistakes. The misconception out there is that I run this loose ship where I want everyone out on the piss all the time having a great time and don\u2019t give a hoot about cricket. It couldn\u2019t be further from the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n Amid the attention on their off-field activities, McCullum and Brook\u2019s team excelled in Sri Lanka, with a strong preparation for their T20 World Cup campaign that begins on Sunday against Nepal in Mumbai. [Tuesday night] was another brilliant example of a team which is prepared to change tactically and play the situation to what was required,\u201d McCullum said.<\/p>\n \u201cTo bowl 16 overs of spin defending a low total on a surface which is having its third game on was what was required. The application and the investment from the group to acknowledge that and go all in with that strategy is immensely satisfying from a coaching point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brendon McCullum insists he is not running a \u201cloose ship\u201d as England\u2019s head coach and, while praising Harry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-458287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458287","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=458287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}