McCullum lifts lid on "simple" England philosophy and "absolute beauty" Stokes

05 January 2023 , 14:14

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Brendon McCullum has lifted the lid on his approach to coaching England's Test team (Image: Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)

Brendon McCullum has overseen a remarkable transformation of England's Test team, having guided them to nine victories in his first ten games in charge.

Playing a new positive and aggressive brand of cricket that has been dubbed 'Bazball' after McCullum's nickname, England have recorded thumping victories over New Zealand, India, South Africa and Pakistan.

And when asked by former Australia captain Ricky Ponting on Channel 7 to explain his coaching philosophy, McCullum spoke about wanting to "allow talent to flourish" and for England to simply "have a good time" before paying tribute to captain Ben Stokes.

McCullum explained: "My philosophy? Well it's pretty simple mate, I hate seeing talent wasted and stymied by pressures and negativity.

"So you just try and do the best job you can to give the skipper, who is an absolute beauty, as much support as you possibly can and then hopefully allow talent to flourish.

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"The other thing is, I just want the guys to have a good time. As we all know, there's so much involved in playing top level sport and there's a lot of failure involved as well.

McCullum also paid tribute to England captain Ben Stokes (Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)

"You shouldn't wait till the end of your career, to be able to look back and say, 'gee that was good fun'. You should be trying to enjoy it right the way through.

"It's a pretty simple philosophy and the boys have responded brilliantly so far. And as I say, the skipper... he's a gem.

"I'm really stoked to have the opportunity to work with someone who is as like-minded as Stokesey and what he's done with the team so far has been simply brilliant."

Matthew Cooper