As the ECB gear-up to reveal the outcomes of their post-Ashes review, Ben Gardner reflects on how England can continue under a watered-down Bazball philosophy.
Can you do a post-mortem on something that isn’t actually dead? That is what ECB chief executive Richard Gould, England men’s managing director Rob Key, and the great and good of the English press pack will attempt next week, dissecting the failed culmination of the Brendon McCullum project, even as McCullum himself, by all reports, will keep his job for now.
Beyond that, there are many questions that must be posed and answered: what was the process which led to this decision? How is the relationship between Stokes and McCullum? What were some of the 100 things Key didn’t get to do because he was talking to Liam Livingstone? Did they include hiring a bowling coach for the whole of the Ashes?
But most importantly, what next? What is actually changing even if nothing seems to be changing? Something needs to, in part because they’ve lost a lot of the room, the players on the outside wondering if anything they do matters, the coaches losing faith in the style of play they’ve been asked to recreate, the fans feeling that they care more about winning and losing than the team themselves. Perception matters, even if there is a distance between perception and reality. Can England tell a different story of themselves? And can they do so without losing their essence? It remains true that removing pressure, having fun and playing with freedom are all laudable aims. England must find a way to retain them while convincing those watching that they also desperately want to win.
But mostly something needs to change because it’s the right thing to do. This Ashes shambles hurt more and in a different way than those that came before because it felt like England didn’t give themselves the chance to find out whether a raw, talented squad playing in a pioneering manner could compete in Australia. With a proper coaching structure, would the bowling have been less wayward? Would they have learned their batting lessons more quickly? Would they have dropped fewer catches? Would any of that have made a difference? No one will ever know.
For what it's worth, while it might be that Big Bad Baz simply doesn’t care about the Ashes, there is a more prosaic explanation for England’s underpreparation: the job as it’s become is simply too big. Until this winter, England had entered their previous assignments on the road armed with novel ideas after creative build-ups. Home teams consistently required a backup plan, England winning five opening Tests out of five in away series under McCullum until this winter. This time, despite everything seemingly having been geared towards this tour, they turned up hoping to wing it, after a white-ball tour of New Zealand that proved to be more complicated than anticipated, both on and off the pitch. England have unlearned what they knew before and will presumably learn again: The schedule is too vast, the roles too distant for anyone to effectively manage all three of England’s men’s teams at the same time.
Still, Rob Key and the Richards are set to remain all-in on McCullum. At various points in the past four years, as Stokes’ body has creaked and thoughts have turned to the future, the question of whether England’s approach can be maintained without one or both of its two co-creators in situ has loomed. But now, instead of Bazball without Baz, the ECB seem instead to be opting for Baz without Bazball, or at least Bazball Lite, a kind of cricketing centrism. Some fear of failure might be good, actually. Just keep all the good bits and remove all the bad bits. Tee off (not recklessly). Simple.
It may well prove impossible. It will require introspection of a philosophy whose central teaching is just to not care too much, mate. It will require moderation where before there was excess, mollification of a gameplan that, in its heady early days, was defined by nothing less than total, unquestioning commitment to attack. In hindsight, it’s a large part of what made Bazball’s first year so exhilarating. This was a revolution built on unsustainable momentum, and the thrill was in wondering how long it could keep going. Next week, and over the next few months, we’ll find out whether the reverse is also true. After reaching the bottom, is the only way from here up?
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