Ian Healy calls for Brendon McCullum to be sacked in wake of England’s Ashes disaster
Australian cricket great Ian Healy has hinted that England may be preparing to pull the trigger and end the Bazball era for good.
Australian cricket great Ian Healy has sensationally claimed England coach Brendon McCullum “has got to go” if the tourists lose this year’s Ashes series.
Bazball has been highly controversial since its inception.
Despite the fact that it has produced many an entertaining match with the aggressive, risk-taking style, it has led to several appalling English collapses, most recently on Day 2 of the first Ashes Test in Perth.
This year’s Ashes has been viewed as England’s best chance to win the urn Down Under in nearly two decades, with the Australian team labelled the weakest in the modern era and the English team the strongest in more than a decade.
In the first Test, Australia’s batsmen struggled for form, and the side was missing their two best bowlers in Perth.
But McCullum’s Bazball approach resulted in England letting slip a huge 99-run lead with nine wickets in hand, to lose convincingly.
It has led some pundits to question if captain Ben Stokes could be dropped, but Healy believes it is McCullum who should be removed.
“The coach would go first before the captain (Stokes) because he’s a world-class player,’ Healy said on SEN.
“He (Stokes) will be performing – even if they are going down that badly. I think the coach has got to go because they’ve just outright flat-batted any advice from others who know the history of the game and what you should try in certain conditions and moments.
“They’ve taken it upon themselves to do it this way, and if it doesn’t work, they will be in trouble. If you want to play this way, you’d want to get better at it.
“You’re up against the conditions, a good Australian bowling attack and history.
“You have to have a bit of ticker and a bit of common sense in amongst what they’re doing. If not, they’re going to get hurt. If they go down badly, whether that’s 4-1, 4-0 or 5-0, look out.”
It’s been a mess of a tour so far for the Brits, with McCullum’s tactics and preparations questionable.
It has led to former England captains Michael Vaughan and Ian Botham turning on both Stokes and McCullum after they opted to play a warm-up match at Lilac Hill, a far different wicket to the one at Optus Stadium.
\Stokes fired back, labelling Vaughan and Botham ‘has-beens’ in a vicious swipe.
And if you’d thought England would have learnt their lesson after their embarrassing first Test loss, you’d be wrong.
England incredibly refused the chance to play in a pink-ball warm-up match in Canberra against the Australian Prime Minister’s XI ahead of the day-night Test in Brisbane.
It was a move that Vaughan could not comprehend, labelling it “amateurish”.
But despite it all, McCullum has told England fans to “keep the faith”.
“We know how big this series is,” McCullum said after the first Test drubbing.
“We know how many eyeballs are on it and how disappointed the fans will be. We’re incredibly disappointed in ourselves.
“We’re better than what we showed, and we look forward to the next opportunity.’
“Keep the faith. Sometimes we get beaten, and it looks pretty ugly, but there are times when having that type of mentality allows us to still believe in our abilities when we step out to play.
“There are times we don’t get it right, but we have to believe in what we believe in because it gives us the best chance. Just because we are one down in the series doesn’t change what we believe in.
“We have to stay calm, stay together, and plot our way back into this series, as we have done before.”
The second Test gets underway in Brisbane next Thursday.
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Originally published as Ian Healy calls for Brendon McCullum to be sacked in wake of England’s Ashes disaster
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