Brendon McCullum clears the air with Ben Stokes as England thrust the band back together
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It was not quite Wayne Rooney’s famous declaration that “the big man is back” ahead of the 2006 World Cup, but Ben Stokes was bullish ahead of his return to England duty.
“It was very pleasing,” said Brendon McCullum when asked at Trent Bridge about the errant captain’s 95 off 118 balls, made for Durham against Northamptonshire while England imploded at the Oval. “I thought he batted brilliantly. He actually texted me asking if I’d seen the highlights and when I said I had he just replied: ‘I’m back!’
“He played with a lot of oomph.”
It was almost as if Stokes had never been away when he joined up with his England team-mates again on Tuesday ahead of Thursday’s third Test; almost as if the crisis that has gripped English cricket since the captain’s late night out in Chelsea had never happened.
If coach McCullum’s aim, when speaking to the media at Trent Bridge, was to paint a picture of a collective front with his captain after a fortnight which left the whole ‘Bazball’ regime hanging by a thread, then he made a convincing job of it.
Only when McCullum had an apparent slip of the tongue and talked of his relationship with Stokes in the past tense — “I look back fondly how tight we were as a group and how tight we were as a pair” — did his mask come anywhere close to slipping.
“Ben’s great,” insisted McCullum. “I had a good catch up with him this morning, an hour and a bit talking, and he was outstanding, actually. He looks fantastic, he’s ready to go and he’s enthusiastic about the week ahead. It’s so nice to have the band back together.”
Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes walk across the ground ahead of an England training session at Trent Bridge (Philip Brown/Getty Images)
The reality, of course, is a little different.
Stokes and his camp, led by powerful agent Neil Fairbrother, have been in dispute with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) over the extent of the captain’s ‘crime’, and even whether he had technically broken his own curfew on that infamous visit to a Chelsea nightclub after the Lord’s Test.
Throughout another tumultuous chapter in Stokes’ extraordinary career of extreme highs and lows, there was not a single bit of public backing from McCullum or England managing director Rob Key. It was as if they never expected him back as England captain.
Now, after being given a final warning by the ECB but cleared by a separate Cricket Regulator investigation, Stokes and his fellow late night drinker Gus Atkinson were back in training and among four changes to an England team desperately needing to beat New Zealand this week. Jamie Smith and Shoaib Bashir also return, with Ollie Robinson missing out. The latter’s absence is the only change from happier times at the first game at Lord’s.
The extent of the peace that has apparently broken out between all parties will be tested, as ever, on the field in the days ahead, but it was fascinating to hear McCullum insist that he has always maintained a close relationship with Stokes and they were as “tight” as ever.
All the evidence was that the relationship had become strained during the Ashes when captain and coach went in very different tactical directions as they felt the full force of the Australian storm. The aftermath of Lord’s only exacerbated those differences. Or did it?
“I said to Ben this morning: ‘Do you know where this has come from, the conversations around our relationship over the last six months?’,” said McCullum. “He said: ‘No, I have no idea.’ I then said: ‘As far as I’m concerned I consider you a good friend.’ We’ve been through a lot together as a working pair in leadership positions in English cricket. There are going to be times when we discuss and debate things.
“Yes, we have those robust conversations, but you’d be incredibly disappointed if you weren’t having those conversations to try to steer your team forward.
“We’ve had a great chat this morning and for both of us it’s always been about what’s best for English cricket. No, our relationship isn’t strained at all and we are crystal clear on the direction we want this team to take.”
Brendon McCullum talks to the media at Trent Bridge (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
There is no doubt, however, that the pressure is on Key, McCullum and Stokes in this deciding Test of a three-match series more than ever before — more even than after they all just about survived the debacle of a 4-1 Ashes defeat last winter.
McCullum knows it but he is determined to weather this latest storm. “These are the moments that your methods and the environment you’ve created are tested,” he conceded. “And that’s what you want. Anyone can lead when it’s easy.
“I remember talking to Eoin Morgan (England’s World Cup winning captain of 2019) after the 2015 World Cup (when England reached a white-ball nadir) and you know how close I am to him. He came to me and said ‘what do you think I should do?’
“I said: ‘Tough times don’t last but tough blokes do.’ This is no different. You’ve got to be able to go through some tough times knowing that, if you’re able to navigate them, hold the fort and hold your nerve, then there’s some good stuff to come.
“There’s a stubbornness to me. The most successful teams are built from adversity. I knew there would be scrutiny that came with this job. I can’t whinge about that when I’m deep into it. I’m a big boy. I can get on with things. The focus for me is to get the best out of these guys — alongside Ben as captain.”
But will McCullum and Stokes still be England coach and captain when next they play a Test match, in August in the three-Test series against Pakistan? “I’ve said all along, ‘Live as if you’ll die tomorrow’,” said McCullum. “You won’t get a different answer from me just because we’re under a bit of pressure.
“Everyone who has worked alongside Ben Stokes has an immense amount of respect for him, myself included. One blemish doesn’t ruin all of that. It’s just a slight blip and then you move on.”
Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson are both restored to the England team for the third Test against New Zealand (Philip Brown/Getty Images)
Describing the events of the last fortnight as a “slight blip” is akin to Monty Python’s black knight assessing his extensive injuries and saying “’tis but a scratch”, but McCullum is clearly up for the tough task of keeping England together, building bridges with Stokes and, above all, keeping his job beyond the next week in Nottingham. Victory here would help.
Now all eyes will turn to Stokes himself when he speaks for the first time since his night out at the Rex Rooms in his captain’s pre-match media conference on Wednesday.
It is intriguing that the captain has not done one of the ECB’s in-house ‘soft landing’ interviews that are all the rage this season ahead of facing the media. Instead he is going to have a good old fashioned interrogation. Nobody seems quite sure what Stokes will say, whether he will be apologetic or unrepentant. But whatever it is, it will be box office.
As it always is with the captain.