England will not change until this arrogant regime is dismissed

England will not change until this arrogant regime is dismissed ByGeoffrey Boycott January 9, 2026 — 5.00am Save

Share Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size England’s three wise men turned out to be the Three Stooges. Brendon McCullum, Rob Key and Ben Stokes sold a lie for three years.

McCullum and Key said they had been planning for the Ashes all that time but this was a slapstick tour riddled with mistakes and they deserved to lose 4-1.

Australia put the final nail in the coffin of England to complete a 4-1 series win in the Ashes.

McCullum’s philosophy is, “Do your own thing. Play without a care in the world. Express yourselves and if you get out, no problem, it’s not your fault”. Nobody tells them off, no accountability, and nobody gets dropped so they just keep doing the same daft things.

Why should the players change, adapt or improve if the coach and captain are OK with it? People are now getting fed up with this way of playing and if Key keeps backing McCullum to allow the players to continue making the same mistakes then his job may be on the line.

This sort of free licence to do whatever you please with no consequence is holding England back. We have some very talented cricketers, but that skill is not being harnessed. We need a different discipline and structure to the way the players prepare and think to get to the next level.

The three wise men kept telling anyone who would listen that they knew the importance of winning the Ashes in Australia.

Stokes said they would not be afraid and would play their normal attacking cricket. They were insistent they did not need any competitive warm-up matches before the first Test.

All the ex-players who had won Test matches and Ashes series in Australia tried to tell them they were wrong and needed competitive practice matches for the bowlers to get overs in their legs and find the most effective lengths to bowl on Aussie pitches. The batsmen needed to score runs in the middle to boost their confidence and get used to the extra pace and bounce on very hard surfaces.

But no, the three wise men knew better even though none of them had won a Test series in Australia and our captain embarrassed himself and disrespected ex-players by telling the world that those old ex players were “has-beens”.

In other words, they had nothing to learn, were not going to change or listen to anyone outside of the squad because they knew best.

Once it dawned on Ben how rude his comments were he made it worse by trying to say it was a slip of the tongue instead of just giving a simple apology.

After a chastened England lost the first three Tests and the Ashes in only 11 days, the three wise men were under pressure to keep their jobs. Brendon says they are going to learn some lessons and Key backs Brendon.

Of course they don’t want to lose their jobs. It’s a cushy number and well paid. How can we believe any of them when for three years they have all been so intractable in their views? Does a leopard change its spots? How do we know they won’t just carry on as normal?

Joe Root has said, “It would be silly to change the management team”. Really? After losing the Ashes so badly, would any company or sporting entity say to their management team, “The same again please”?

Sport is a results business. This trio would not last five minutes in soccer or the commercial world. There is every chance the suits at the ECB will keep their heads down and hope all the fuss will eventually die down and then carry on as normal.

If the three wise men stay then the ECB has to make sure there is some sort of change. Key should be told to invite a couple of the past great players like Ian Botham, Graham Gooch and David Gower to sit with him and McCullum, and even the captain, to receive first-hand some fresh and different ideas. The ex-players want England to win and have been winners in Ashes series so know what they are talking about. How many times can I say we former players want England to win.

A huge majority of cricket lovers feel badly let down. Not because we lost but the way we lost. The Ashes two years ago in England was a disappointment but this tour has been dreadful. Australia were there for the taking. They have an ordinary batting unit dependent on Steve Smith, Travis Head and the wicketkeeper Alex Carey.

The bowling unit was decimated: Josh Hazlewood out for the series, Pat Cummins fit for only one Test and Nathan Lyon injured in Adelaide.

Ben Stokes finishes the Ashes a beaten, and injured, man. Ben Stokes finishes the Ashes a beaten, and injured, man.Credit:Getty Images

That was a piece of good fortune but England blew it. There was no proper preparation, just an “it will be alright on the day” attitude.

There was poor selection before and during the tour. No back-up opener if the main two lost form or got injured. No proper reserve wicketkeeper. No specialist second spinner.

They failed to pick the main spinner, Shoaib Bashir, at Adelaide and Sydney. For ages, this management played him with a view to being a success in Australia. Then when England arrived in Australia they abandoned him.

Anyone could see Will Jacks was selected to strengthen the batting but as a spinner was not good enough. Mark Wood and Jofra Archer were cosseted for far too long.

It was poor thinking by the bowling coaches and physios who thought that once Wood and Archer were declared fit they could turn up and perform well in Test matches.

It was naive to the point of stupidity to believe their bodies could take the strain of a number of bowling spells in the pressure cooker of an Ashes series.

Root said, “Every single player has improved”. Really? Where? How? All I can say is Joe must be seeing things through rose-tinted spectacles.

Zak Crawley’s technique has not improved. He still has a big gate when defending and flashes outside off stump. Ollie Pope still has a poor defence and gets himself out attacking more than he gets out to good balls. He fidgets and jumps around like a cat on a hot tin roof.

Ben Duckett has never learned how to leave the ball around off stump so when he does not get easy hittable balls early on and starts to lose a bit of confidence he gets out not knowing whether to stick or twist. Harry Brook has talent to die for but still gets himself out in tight situations instead of winning the match for England.

Stokes still struggles against spinners when the ball turns, particularly when it goes away from him. And he has now got stuck either blocking or attacking with no middle way of batting.

Jamie Smith has shot-playing ability but gives his wicket away under pressure with no thought for the state of the match. His dismissal in Sydney was brainless and is symptomatic of this squad of players. It is not the first time Smith has been irresponsible. He never thinks of the situation of the match or the consequences for other players coming after him with the new ball due in five overs.

There were three balls in the second innings off Mitchell Starc where Harry Brook was trying to uppercut him and missing each time. I wanted to shout, “Harry, stop, what are you doing?”

Jacks’ two-ball crazy innings hitting over the top when England were in trouble. They sum up the culture in the team – no accountability, don’t care to read the situation of the match and nobody tells them off or explains that it is not smart.

But hey McCullum and Stokes tell the guys it doesn’t matter if you get out you will still get selected for the next match so they don’t have to change anything or work on improving, so why should we be surprised they bat in the same irresponsible way?

Or does Joe mean England are better under Stokes and McCullum than when he was captain in Australia in 2021-22 and England lost 4-0? Coach Chris Silverwood and director of cricket Ashley Giles lost their jobs. If so, he is right but when he was captain we were so bad at losing matches with morale so low that anything was going to be better. It is easier to forget those times.

England never recovered from Perth, and neither did this Ashes series There was something positive: a 22-year-old Jacob Bethell scoring a beautiful century. The highest compliment I can pay him is that he looked quality and had time, which is the hallmark of the best batsmen. He was compact, at ease and confident. He has a good range of strokes: off drive, back foot drive, cut and the sweep.

My advice would be that when going in early at No.3 against the new ball to give the hook a miss until later on. Only suckers take on the best bowlers with a new ball. Also play your way. Don’t get lured into Bazball.

I like Brendon. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like him and he has been a breath of fresh air for England cricket which has been exciting and invigorating.

But Brendon is a gambler who thinks he is always going to win his money back. That’s how casinos always win in the end. How many hopefuls start well but finish in tears? The reason is they don’t know when to stop or change their routine.

I just think Brendon has taken us as far as he can and we need someone else to take England to the next level. So many of us keep saying we love the brand of cricket England play. It would be churlish not to but for heaven’s sake read the match and judge when it is the moment to play with caution and common sense.

Brendon is a gambler who thinks he is always going to win his money back. That’s how casinos always win in the end.

At times you need to grasp when to temper the batting aggression. But no, the risk-taker Brendon has instilled in his team they should attack and go for it.

Ego, arrogance and hubris overtakes common sense. It has worked spectacularly at times giving us thrilling winning cricket against lesser teams but the big two of India and Australia have been good enough to wait for England to self-destruct on that same ego, arrogance and hubris.

Brendon has said we will have to learn lessons. That really annoys me because he has had over three years to learn and adapt but nothing has made him change his ways. Can a gambler change? I don’t think so. It is in the blood.

Nobody wants England to go back to dour defensive cricket. We all love the rate of scoring runs but Test matches are like playing chess. Sometimes you attack and gain an advantage, other times you stay patient and sit in waiting for your opponent to make the wrong move and then you strike. That’s how we would like our England cricket team to play. With a bit of pragmatism. Is that so difficult?

The Australians came to England two years ago rubbishing Bazball and England duly self-destructed. Before England arrived in Australia, Darren Lehmann, now coach at Northamptonshire, wrote that Bazball would not win in Australia. The Australian newspapers and former Australia players said it wouldn’t work.

But our three wise men knew better, and so we were under-prepared and under-performed, and lost the Ashes.

Telegraph, London