England cricket coach Brendon McCullum.
Photo: Kerry Marshall/www.photosport.nz
Former Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum does not like the term ‘Bazball’ and says misconceptions surrounding England’s style of play are “disrespectful”.
McCullum was appointed head coach of England’s Test side in 2022 when the team had won one match in 17, and alongside captain Ben Stokes, has revived the team’s fortunes.
They have since become known for a fearless and aggressive brand of cricket, particularly with the bat and ‘Bazball’ was coined to describe the approach.
‘Bazball’ is so ingrained that it has its own Wikipedia page.
It says the informal term was coined by ESPN Cricinfo UK editor Andrew Miller during the 2022 English cricket season, referring to the style of play of the England team in Test matches.
“The Bazball style and mindset is said to have an emphasis on taking positive decisions in attack and defence, whether batting or in the field. Many of these skills and strategies were developed in playing One Day International and Twenty20 matches.
“A faster scoring rate has allowed the team to declare their innings earlier and seek a result where ordinarily a draw would occur,” according to Wikipedia.
But McCullum, whose nickname is Baz, told the ‘For the Love of Cricket’ podcast that the term and the perception of the team’s style of play was simplistic.
“It’s amazing that, it’s almost like [people think] we’ve come up with a term, we haven’t come up with a term,” McCullum said.
“We never have that kind of mindset about ourselves in the sense that, we’re not rigid in how we go about things.
“I think there’s a misconception that how we play is we swing the bat as hard as we can, we try and take wickets and we go and play golf and have a few beers.
“I find it slightly disrespectful to all of you guys [the players] and all of the people that are involved in the set-up who work so hard and have such clear determination of wanting to succeed, to have it so simply categorised.
“For us it’s a matter of trying to create an environment which allows you to handle the pressures of international cricket, understand the size of the task but to not be restricted in your ability to go out and play.”
McCullum said his messaging was always around players’ mindset and drawing their talent out.
“You want your talent to come out, I hate seeing talent stymied, so having a certain style or belief in how we want to play gives us the best chance of success,” McCullum told the ‘For the Love of Cricket’ podcast.
“You can’t do that if you are bound by this tension and negativity. I know they want to win, I know I want to win, I know the opposition wants to win.”
It is a huge year for the England Test team, which started with a thrilling drawn series against India.
The final frontier is the highly anticipated Ashes series, which starts in Perth on 21 November.
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