'Not the end of an era': Bazball lives on after review of disastrous Ashes

ABC24-03-2026

'Not the end of an era': Bazball lives on after review of disastrous Ashes

Coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes will continue to lead England's men's team. (Getty Images: Philip Brown)

In short:

England coach Brendon McCullum, captain Ben Stokes and men's team director Rob Key have all kept their jobs after a review of last summer's Ashes.

The review identified team culture, long-term planning and better alignment with county sides as three main areas for improvement, according to England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Richard Gould.

Key said it was "not the end of an era" but players needed to be smarter and more ruthless on the field.

Brendon McCullum will continue as England's head coach in all three formats despite the team's lacklustre performances and lingering questions about their dressing-room culture after the Ashes tour over the summer.

A review of the tour by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), announced within hours of the final match in January, has resulted in no major personnel changes at the top.

ECB chief executive Richard Gould said the findings of the review would not be released in full.

"There's a whole host of things we're enacting," he said.

"We're not going to issue the review in total because there's a whole load of actions we know we need to do but we don't necessarily want our opposing teams to know what we're doing."

A 4-1 scoreline can leave no doubt, this has been an Ashes summer of dominance for a resilient Australian side and a tour of errors and mismanagement for England.

Coach McCullum, captain Ben Stokes and managing director Rob Key kept their jobs after England lost the Ashes in 11 days with two games to spare.

"Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That's not the route that we're going to take," Gould said.

"I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward."

"I think we're very lucky to have the leadership we've got. They've gone through a very exciting time over the last four years.

"Everyone has taken significant learnings from a difficult winter, but now we've got a leadership group that has been hardened by those learning experiences but is even more determined now to drive forward our future success."

England's tour of Australia was a disaster. (AP: Mark Baker)

One of the primary criticisms surrounding England's 4-1 defeat in Australia included their casual preparations for the marquee series, which Gould said was one of the key pillars of the review, along with team culture and alignment with the counties.

On the field, men's team director Rob Key said they needed to be better, smarter and more ruthless.

"No more getting to 60 and 70, chipping one up in the air and walking off. It's about going out there and being absolutely ruthless in what you're doing, and it's the same with the ball," he said.

"Sometimes the whole Bazball thing is an excuse for players to go out there and play poor shots; that is not the case.

"We still want players that are looking to be aggressive … we've just got to be smarter in how we do it."

Men's team director Rob Key said players could not use Bazball as an excuse to play poor shots. (Getty Images: Gareth Copley)

He insisted the current team could take them forward with some slight adjustments to attitude.

"We made a lot of mistakes as you do, especially when you're playing against a very good side," he said of the Ashes.

"But it's not the end of an era; it's still a team that is building, it's still a bowling attack that's building, still players that went out there for the very first time into the toughest conditions, and you hope we're all going to learn from that experience, be hardened by that experience and actually be spurred on to do even better."

Gould and Key said McCullum and Stokes had not had a "bust-up" as reported in the British press, and they did not want McCullum to "completely change" but "to evolve".

They said the behaviour of some players was "unprofessional", there would be more consequences for underperforming going forward, and there would be a commitment to better long-term planning ahead of major Test series.

Losing an Ashes Test series in Australia is nothing new for England, but finally the Bazballers are looking inwards at their own failings after a stirring end to the Adelaide Test.

Some changes were already implemented for the Twenty20 World Cup, where England reached the semifinals. Gould implied that performance saved McCullum.

England was knocked out of the tournament by India this month. England was led by Test vice-captain Harry Brook, whose altercation with a nightclub bouncer in New Zealand last year continued to be ‌a distraction and was revealed publicly only after the Ashes finished.

Key said there were "long and hard" conversations about taking the limited-overs captaincy off Brook but they decided against it.

Gould said there was clearly "room for improvement" when it came to team culture and said there would be "additional restrictions on players to help them in terms of knowing what's within bounds and what's not within bounds".

Tune in for the latest cricket news, interviews and analysis from the ABC team in the Grandstand Cricket Podcast.

All-rounder Liam Livingstone has also criticised the team culture, saying the current regime does not care ⁠about players outside the core group.

McCullum is contracted to oversee the team until the end of the 50-over World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia ⁠next year. England hosts New Zealand for a three-test series ‌in June before eight limited-overs matches at ‌home to India.

Key, whose position had also come under scrutiny, told Sky Sports McCullum was the best man ‌to lead England.

"Ultimately, it's about who do the players, who do we think can take English cricket forward? Who's the one that can get the best out of the best players in ‌this country? And for me, that's Brendon McCullum," ⁠Key said.

"There's been some really, really good stuff done. It was a winter that did not go well, which would be an understatement, but that doesn't mean they're bad leaders."

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