Rob Key has hit out at England players, saying they sometimes talk “rubbish” in the media when they say results do not matter.
Ben Duckett said he would not care if England lost their ODI series in India 3-0 if they went on to win the Champions Trophy. During the 2023 Ashes, Zak Crawley said England were “not about winning or losing, we’re about entertainment”.
Messaging is not a new problem for this team and an exasperated Key has spoken to the players before about the difference between internal chats about playing with freedom and not fearing failure, but publicly concentrating on results.
“There’s no doubt that we’ve got to get better when we’re doing interviews,” Key, England’s managing director, said. “We speak a lot of rubbish a lot of the time because they’re trying so hard to not sort of upset players in the dressing room, not try and give away something that they don’t think they should. And then they end up creating headlines for that.
“There’s not a world in which the players don’t care, they don’t want to go and get big scores. It’s absolutely not true that they don’t care about winning, that they’re arrogant. These are young men and it’s not easy doing all of this type of stuff. They are trying so hard, they are walking a fine balance between trying to give insight into what is going on in the dressing room, things that are being said, and there is a reason at times why Brendon [McCullum, England’s head coach] says what he does.”
Stokes a contender for white-ball captain
Key, speaking at Lord’s for the first time since England’s exit from the Champions Trophy, in which they lost all three group matches, also said he would be “stupid” not to consider Ben Stokes for the England white-ball captaincy, potentially thrusting more responsibility on his shoulders in an Ashes year.
Stokes is currently recovering from the serious hamstring injury he sustained at the end of the New Zealand tour and is yet to prove he can sustain his twin role as an all-rounder in Test cricket after a succession of operations.
But with England’s white-ball cricket in disarray after Jos Buttler paid the price for a third successive poor global tournament performance, Stokes has suddenly emerged as a surprise possible replacement to lead all three England teams. Harry Brook, though, is considered the leading contender for the T20 job. That could lead to a split in roles, although no discussions have been held with Stokes, as England are monitoring his fitness before making any concrete plans.
“Ben Stokes is one of the best captains I’ve ever seen, so it would be stupid not to look at him. It’s just the knock-on effect of what that means,” Key said. “Nothing’s off the table, really. You look at every single option and you think: ‘Right, what is the best thing to do?’
“He’s an unbelievably good tactician, which we’ve seen in Test cricket, and he’s a leader of men. He’s someone who gets the best out of people. He’s someone that, when the pressure is really on, he’s able to throw a blanket around the players and actually say, ‘no, no, this is the way forward, keep going with it’. And I think they’re the things that you need in leadership.
“It’s more about, what would it then mean to him? What would that then mean to his workload? We don’t want to risk other things as well. But there’s always a way in England to start looking at what if it goes wrong? You’ve also got to think, what if it goes right?”
Stokes has been in Abu Dhabi training with the England Lions and Key says he is “on track” to be fit for the start of the season and play as an all-rounder. Brook remains the more likely replacement for Buttler because England need to start bringing through the next generation of leaders. “Harry Brook will be an outstanding captain. It might bring out the best in Harry Brook, just being able to go out there and feel the extra responsibility.”
Key accepted England made mistakes tactically and with selections at the Champions Trophy, which was the first challenge for McCullum as head coach in both formats. They were criticised for not taking practice and training seriously enough, with Kevin Pietersen and Ravi Shastri questioning their work ethic during the one-day series in India.
“Brendon was going to go and meet with Ravi Shastri, do an interview with him to just explain exactly what had been going on. He wasn’t there for that interview. But look, I have no issue with the way our guys go about things,” Key said.
England were one-dimensional at the Champions Trophy, over-reliant on fast bowling and batted at one pace. McCullum encouraged his players to respond to defeat by going harder. The performance of Jamie Smith summed it up. He has proved he can bat responsibly in Test cricket but when promoted to No 3 in the ODI side he threw away his wicket three times, suggesting he was following a plan.
“When you start looking at it, over the last couple of years, the batting in particular has fallen off a cliff,” Key said. “Your only currency as a bat is runs. You go out there, whether you’re batting one, two, three, it doesn’t matter how quickly you get it, how slowly you get it, it’s about, can you go and play an innings that’s going to help your side win a game? That’s the only currency you’ve got. So we could have changed the selection, yes, but the fact is that if you’re not batting well and batting is your strength, that’s a real problem.”
England’s most eye-catching Bazball quotes
1. Zak Crawley, June 2023
“That’s what we’re all about – we’re not about results, we always talk about that, we’re not about winning or losing, we’re about entertainment.”
The England opener was in punchy form after England narrowly lost the Ashes opener at Edgbaston, but perhaps did not read the room given the result in the most important series of all.
2. Brendon McCullum, June 2023:
“It feels like we’ve won, lads.”
An Ollie Robinson column for Wisden drew a lot of attention, particularly for the line that revealed England head coach McCullum had told the team their Edgbaston defeat felt like a win. That was despite Australia getting over the line from an unlikely position thanks to Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon.
3. Stuart Broad, June 2023:
“And then came that first shot from Zak Crawley. Broady [Stuart Broad] said it’s his favourite ever Ashes moment.”
In the very same column, Robinson somewhat threw team-mate Broad under the bus by revealing he said that Crawley hitting the first ball of the Ashes for four was his favourite Ashes moment… ever.
4. Harry Brook, July 2023:
“We were dominating the game and if it had played out I would like to think we would have won. So if we can win this week, it almost can make it a moral victory.”
The common use of the term “moral Ashes” was no doubt swelled by Brook claiming England could take just that with a win at the Oval to level the series after rain had denied the hosts at Old Trafford. Following the Bairstow-Carey incident at Lord’s, moral superiority was already being claimed in England.
5. Ben Stokes, July 2024:
“We’ve managed to become a sports team that will live for ever in the memory of people who were lucky enough to witness us play cricket.”
The clip of Stokes saying the above came from the Old Trafford dressing room after it was confirmed Australia would retain the urn, but it was not released until a year later as part of an England and Wales Cricket Board documentary. The quote drew plenty of attention, especially Down Under.
6. Ben Duckett, February 2025:
“If we lose 3-0 to India, I don’t care as long as we beat them in the final of the Champions Trophy.”
The England opener’s recent comments during an unsuccessful tour of India before the (also unsuccessful) Champions Trophy campaign were picked up as a sign England, now under McCullum in all formats, did not care about winning enough.
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