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Ben Stokes calls the appointment of Brendon McCullum as the new limited-overs coach for the England men “an unbelievable move” and feels that the players who will come through the white-ball setup in the upcoming months will particularly benefit from his influence.
As part of a new three-year contract that will keep him in English cricket until the end of 2027, McCullum will combine both responsibilities starting in 2025, the ECB confirmed on Tuesday. With Stokes’ assistance, McCullum took over the red-ball duty in May 2022 and since then, he has been responsible for a culture and performance change.
In that time, a more emancipated England has won 19 of the 28 Test matches. In turn, that led to six series wins out of nine and just one loss, which came on a road trip to India at the beginning of the current year.
In contrast, when the golden generation who won the World Cup in 2019 and the 2022 T20 World Cup approached the conclusion of their careers, England’s white-ball setup failed. Accompanied by McCullum in charge of limited-overs affairs, Matthew Mott resigned in July after exhibiting poorly in both the T20 and the 2023 50-over World Cups this summer.
Bazball will now appear in all codes. As he has done effectively with the Test team, McCullum’s first responsibility will be to support the talent transition across England’s 50-over and T20I squads. Given that Stokes chose not to play in the T20 World Cup but is anticipated to be eligible for the Champions Trophy at the beginning of 2025, the Kiwi’s dual role may possibly shed further light on his limited-overs future.
Red Bull athlete Stokes spoke at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in London and expressed optimism about McCullum’s appointment, particularly for limited-overs captain Jos Buttler. Stokes implied that he might have been involved in the appointment as well.
“I was very surprised by the news,” Stokes joked to ESPNcricinfo. “First and foremost, I think it’s an unbelievable move for English cricket to go back to having a coach in charge of all the teams. You look at what Baz has achieved with the Test side, it’s been amazing.
“I’m really excited for the white-ball team to have the opportunity to be able to work with Baz, listen to him speak, his opinions. How his outlook on life reflects cricket, if that makes sense.
“I think Jos is going to really, really enjoy having him as his coach to work with. And you look at all the new faces who are coming into that white-ball team now, I couldn’t think of a better person for them to come in and work under at international level for the first time.
“He just gives everyone the platform to go out and enjoy themselves. That doesn’t always necessarily mean it’s going to reflect on your performances, but Baz never puts any added pressure on anybody’s shoulders whatsoever so far.
“If there was any selfishness, selfishness within me, I would be saying ‘no, please don’t’. But I’m an English fan, I’m an England cricket fan and I couldn’t think of a better person to be appointed to be the new coach of the white-ball team as well.”