Nasser's immediate reaction to Brendon McCullum stepping down as Test head coach

OK, let's get reaction then to this massive breaking news.We can be joined now by the former England captain and Sky Sports cricket pundit Nasser Hussain.Good afternoon, Nasser.I thought that the ECB decided to stick rather than twist with Brendan McCullum after that awful Ashes summer.Are you surprised by the timing of this?

No, not surprised because obviously the loss to New Zealand and the manner of the loss to New Zealand and also the man that McCullum worked with hand in hand for 49 test matches in Ben Stokes himself retiring at the end or nearly the end of that New Zealand series.I think you do have to know no one is overly thrilled when a coach loses his job, either stood down or sacked, however you want to call it.And you do have to remember the great times that Brendan McCullum gave us.They were an absolute joy to watch for two or three years.They won 10 of their first 11 games.And it was not just the wins.

It was the manner and style and the brand.I mean, he is a coach that the brand of cricket was named after.Baz Ball was named after him.And from where England were before him and Stokes, I think it would be wrong not to mention the way they played right at the start.They were an absolute joy to watch.They won so many games and the way they won them home and abroad.

But in the end, in recent times, with the Ashes and losing, what, seven of their last nine Test matches and the manner of those defeats, I think it's about the right time.I'm not sure it was the right thing for Rob Key to do, to give one person both the coaching of the white ball and Test side.And I think it's the right thing now for Bender McCullum to concentrate on white ball cricket.Yesterday, England won at Southampton.They're the number one T20 ranked side in the world now.I think his coaching style at the moment is suited for white ball cricket.

And him and Harry Brooke can drive that white ball side forward and they need a new coach.for Test Match Cricket.So I do think the timing is right.

You alluded to it there, but after what happened with Ben Stokes and everything that went on around that situation, do you think that's played a part here?

Yeah, I mean, if the captain goes, you're going to be looking for a new captain.And then you've got to make sure that that fits in with the style of the coach that you want.But I think they've just made a decision on Brendan McCullum and recent results have not been good enough.And it's at times this England side recently have lacked attention to detail, whether it was the preparation for the Ashes tour and where they were starting and what sort of pitches they were starting, but also some of the looseness on and off the field.Often what you do off the field translates to on the field, and there were incidents off the field, and you saw them play on the field.There were occasions in that Ashes series that they had the game exactly where they wanted it to, Perth being a classic one, lunch day two, and they let it slip.

So a coach will know you're only judged in the end by your results.So in as much as I applaud him for what he did and Stokes did right at the start, I think recently the attention to detail has been lacking.Even small things like overrates and overrate penalties and not paying attention to the World Test Championship and all these things that you should be fully across as a captain, a coach, a director of cricket.It just seems to be the vibe and, you know, we'll go with the vibe and actually fans and spectators want you to win as well, which is what they were doing, but they haven't been doing recently in Test match cricket.

McCullum, in his statement, says that he's gutted not to be continuing.that he wanted to stay on, but the ECB didn't.It was not his decision, ultimately.

It doesn't seem to be his decision.It's semantics, really, whether he used the words stood down or sapped, really.He wanted to carry on doing it, and they want to go in a different direction.I was watching and I have been doing the white ball games these last couple of weeks for England and I've been really impressed with Brendan and his manner and his body language.He's always full of energy and it's not because he's lacking energy.It's because they need to just tighten things up in that test match side.

As I say, I think he's perfectly suited.He's so aligned with Harry Brooke.The two of them are inseparable.Every time you see you go in the dressing room or around the ground, Brooke and McCullum.I think Brooke really likes McCullum as coach.He said it.

And McCullum really likes Brooke as captain.So those two will do some very fine things in white ball cricket.And there's some real talent in white ball cricket.But I just think we've got to get our attention and our attention to detail better suited to test match cricket.I mean, you can have Key being a little bit sort of what will be, will be.And you can have McCullum being what can be, will be.

But I don't think you can have the two of them.So whoever they bring in needs to be absolutely ruthless with their decision making and the daily running of a test match team.

Yeah, you've mentioned it again, perhaps that his style doesn't quite fit England's test style.Why was he not able, McCullum, to adapt, particularly after that thrashing by Australia in the Ashes series?

I'll repeat, his style was suited to test match cricket.He gave us his record, you know, was absolutely superb in those first three years.We mustn't forget that.But in the end, he didn't beat the major cricketing nations that he was signed up to beat.They did not win a series home or away against Australia and against India.And that was the major challenge when he was brought in, was that you're pretty good against certain sides, but when the bars raised, India home and away, Australia home and away, you can't get over the line.

And it's those games where even in the ashes before that,in Australia.And then he came back and the last day or the night before the last day at Trent Bridge in the recent series, they didn't play smart cricket.You know, they went out swinging, which is fine.The pitch was doing a lot and you needed to be positive and you needed to be attacking.And Stokes promoted himself and they all went out on the boundary.

And that was an opportunity to play smart cricket and just knock it in the gaps and get singles.But instead, They kept swinging and it was one classic example when Brook got out and the New Zealand team just ran past him and said to Duckett at the other end, what are you doing?And in the end, it's ironic that a New Zealand side actually sort of gave England a lesson on how you go about test match cricket to a side that's coached pretty much by New Zealanders.

When you look at the State of England test cricket, this doesn't rest solely on the shoulders of McCullum, does it?Are there questions for the ECB to answer?

Yeah, and Rob Key in particular.I mean, everything I've just said about Brendan McCullum applies exactly the same to Rob Key.Exhilarating.His stock was incredibly high two years into the job.Everyone was loving what he was doing and the way they were going about it.Test match crowds, as they often are, were sold out, but not just sold out, but some of the joy, you know, even Joe Root going down and reverse scooping.

They were unbelievable.to watch.And Rob Key's stock was incredibly high.But recently, all the stuff I've said to you about Brendan McCullum can be thrown at Rob Key's door as well, a lacking of attention to detail, even curfew.The moment that curfew was broken, certain players saying, I didn't know there was a curfew and you had to reiterate.And recently,

in the last few days put down what exactly the curfew means.I mean I can't believe you have to have it.It tells you where your side are if you have to have a curfew.If you're having to treat grown up professional sportsmen with curfews you're probably not in the right place as a side and that that rests of the coach and the director of cricket and the captain.So, and also I think the mistake of giving McCullum everything with the modern schedule where a side will be finishing off one format in one part of the world and two days later, they are starting another format in another part of the world.And you expect that coach to be able to prepare, review, see what happened.

Also McCullum liked his time in New Zealand.County cricket was starting in in England and if you want to watch county cricket players you can watch them on the stream but it'd be nice to go and watch in person and talk to people about these players so I don't think whatever road they go down now, and it won't be because they're going to find a new test coach, I do think the days of having Posta at the moment having a coach do everything in English cricket is probably untenable.

So you're expecting Rob Key to remain in his role Nasser?

That's not for me to say, really, that he seems to have survived his role.Yeah, definitely.I think he's lucky to survive the role because everyone around him seems to have lost those.Stokes stood down, Stokes retired.McCullum has been sacked.The decisions that he has made have backfired recently.

They may think that he's got enough goodwill there from how it all started, but I do think he is lucky to staynext season.

Yeah, really pertinent, isn't it?Who are you expecting in terms of a character?Who might be Brendan McCullen's replacement?

Like I say, if you're going to have, and you're going to keep Key, and I don't think with Key his strongest suit is that attention to detail that I keep talking about.So if you're going to have someone like that as your director of cricket, then below you do need someone that is absolutely across everything and does not miss a trick.And for me, the best person for that would be Andy Flower by a country mile.Flower took England to number one in the world.Flower pushed his team hard, some say at times too hard, but I love Flower's coaching ability and the way he went about things.Everything, meticulous in everything that he did.

And that's what's been lacking in this England Test match side, the meticulous nature of what is needed behind the scenes.And it was Andy saying himself, I played county cricket with Andy Flower.And Andy used to say to me, and I used to ask Andy questions, he used to say to me, Nass, I say, why you work so hard off the field, Andy?And he said, I work so hard off the field because I know that that translates on the field.I walk on the field knowing I've done a little bit more than the person, even my own teammate, the person that stood next to me.If I know I've done more than that individual, it just gets me in the right place to play better.

He was a wonderful player.He is a wonderful coach.And I would do anything if I was ECB and Rob Key to go and get Andy Flower.