{"id":769028,"date":"2026-06-30T03:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T03:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/769028\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T03:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T03:07:12","slug":"cricket-news-2026-brendon-mccullum-under-fire-as-england-coach-after-ben-stokes-retirement-michael-vaughan-nasser-hussain-comments-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/769028\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket news 2026: Brendon McCullum under fire as England coach after Ben Stokes retirement; Michael Vaughan, Nasser Hussain comments, criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Stokes\u2019 sudden retirement<\/a> from international cricket has put England<\/a> in yet another state of turmoil, with all eyes now on the future of Brendon McCullum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The outgoing captain delivered the shocking news in the middle of his side\u2019s third Test loss against New Zealand<\/a>, prompting a divided opinion.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ben Stokes walks out through a guard of honour.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Stokes will go down as one of England\u2019s modern-day greats but also a polarising figure, given his off-field history and the way his retirement was handled.<\/p>\n

The attention will quickly turn to who replaces the 36-year-old as Test skipper, especially given vice-captain Harry Brook was in trouble for an alcohol-related incident<\/a> during last year\u2019s tour of New Zealand prior to the Ashes.<\/p>\n

Joe Root<\/a>, from all reports, doesn\u2019t want to captain the side on a permanent basis, while young gun Jacob Bethell<\/a> is yet to cement himself in the side.<\/p>\n

And while the topic of who leads the side on the field is obvious, England great Michael Vaughan<\/a> said there needs to be a decision made on the coach too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always thought in leadership, you need yin and yang – yin and yin is not gonna work, I can promise you that now,\u201d he said on BBC\u2019s Test Match Special. <\/p>\n

\u201cI fundamentally think if you get the coaching structure right and you put a world-class coach with this group, he will work with whoever the captain is. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, it all stems from the coach because last night [day four] was a directive from the coach to go and play in that [aggressive] fashion. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been the directive for four-and-a-half years and it\u2019s not been successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vaughan has floated Andy Flower<\/a> as a potential replacement for McCullum, who has remained adamant he wants to continue in the role. <\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I do,\u201d the Kiwi-born coach said. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy commitment to English cricket has never wavered, I firmly believe in the direction that we can get this team to take.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite having confidence in his coaching and the English regime, there are serious question marks being asked of McCullum and director of cricket Rob Key, who have overseen the rise and fall of Bazball<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former captain Nasser Hussain<\/a> believes a changing of the guard – whether in personnel or mindset – is inevitable now for England.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum during the Ashes tour.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve lost seven out of nine Test matches, you can\u2019t hide from that,\u201d Hussain said on Sky Sports after the defeat at Trent Bridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrendon always comes over very positive and full of energy and I\u2019d like a little bit more honesty at times. It\u2019s not just a Brendon thing, it\u2019s above the team and Ben Stokes – there is a lacking in attention to detail in the last year or so. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are certain things that should have been done away from the team and in the team … clear attention to detail at times has been lacking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is talent there, but it\u2019s not jut about talent, it\u2019s about players understanding their roles and preparing properly. I feel a little bit deflated, it\u2019s seven from nine matches and we are way down the World Test Championship table. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe irony is, we\u2019ve got a lot of New Zealanders in the backroom staff, and it was New Zealand who have actually given us a template on how you should prepare, play, behave and act as a Test match nation.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mike Atherton<\/a> – another former Test skipper – believes it\u2019s time for McCullum to give up either the white-ball or red-ball format. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I\u2019m certain of is captain and coach can\u2019t do it all,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was a big mistake of Rob Key\u2019s to give Brendon McCullum the white-ball job on top of the Test match job – I thought he had it perfect for a while<\/p>\n

\u201cThe schedule is such that there\u2019s a T20 game starting in two days. I\u2019ve been watching England in the nets this morning and they\u2019ve all been batting against a white ball. I have no idea how Brendon McCullum and Harry Brook, after a three-match series, can possibly be planning and prepping for a white-ball series.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe white-ball team needs a specific identity and the red-ball team needs a specific identity. I don\u2019t think Brook, for example, can captain across all formats – I think it\u2019s impossible and I don\u2019t think the coach should be doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Stokes\u2019 sudden retirement from international cricket has put England in yet another state of turmoil, with all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-769028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769028","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=769028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}