Stuart Broad: Brendon McCullum doesn’t believe in drawing games

Former England cricketer Stuart Broad has told William Hill’s podcast, Up Front with Simon Jordan, that when Brendon McCullum took over as England head coach he changed the mentality of the side and insisted that drawing matches wasn’t something he believed in.

Featuring on William Hill’s Up Front with Simon Jordan, a podcast hosted by the former Crystal Palace owner who speaks to sports stars and celebrities and challenges their opinions whilst scrutinising their careers, Broad emphasised McCullum’s focus on winning matches rather than playing for draws: “When Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes came in, a lot of it had been about results, as sport is. They came in and never even mentioned the outcome of matches. Over a month or so they started building players up to always take the positive option in matches.

“It was a mentality that people had bought a ticket to watch us and we were competing with football or the theatre, so we had to give them something to watch. You can entertain a crowd much better by hitting 25 runs off 10 balls with a couple of sixes, rather than batting for three hours and then nicking one to first slip.

“When it really became obvious to the group was in the second Test match of McCullum’s reign at Trent Bridge. We were chasing around 250 in a short period of time. Bairstow and Stokes were batting and they came in at tea with Ben Foakes due to come in next. Foakes asked McCullum, ‘if we lose another wicket, are we going to try to bat out a draw?”, so McCullum called the whole squad and the staff in and said, ‘just to be clear, I don’t believe in draws, we’re going for the win at all costs’.

“That mentality really became reality when, on the first ball after tea, Matt Henry bowled a bouncer at Bairstow and he ducked under it. Stokes walked down and said ‘what are you doing? Just hit it for six’. He smashed the next ball and then went on a rampage and went on to score a century. We just grew with the mindset of encouraging each other to go out and do something special.”

McCullum praised Bairstow after scoring just 16 runs

Broad also spoke on Brendon McCullum’s first match in charge in which he set the precedent for positive play after praising Jonny Bairstow’s innings despite him scoring just 16 runs.

“In the first Test match after he took over, Jonny Bairstow got 16 runs, hitting two great cover drives,” said Broad. “At the end of the day’s play he said to the team ‘what an innings from Jonny, those two cover drives changed the atmosphere of the crowd’. He liked the mindset of going out to change momentum and entertain, and that is everything that he wanted the team to be.

“He backed players. He would tell players that they were going to play over the summer so before then they just had to go and enjoy themselves. The comfort that gives you as a player, to just go and express yourself knowing that you can make a mistake, is immeasurable and it takes away the doubts in your mind.

“If you’re out in the middle and you think ‘I’d quite like to try and hit the next ball for six’, for most of my career you have to go against that because if you got out the momentum would change. Under McCullum and Stokes the mindset was to back yourself and go and hit it for six.”

Stokes captaincy was ‘refreshing’

Broad gave further praise to his former captain Ben Stokes, stating that his time under Stokes’ captaincy was ‘refreshing’.

“When Ben Stokes took over as captain he didn’t care about the other teams’ run rate,” he said. “The mentality was that whatever we conceded as a bowling group, we would score more with the bat. Every time you took the ball, Stokes would ask ‘how are you going to take a wicket?’, so you’re already thinking about taking wickets. That was really refreshing as a 36-year-old to finish my career playing in an environment where runs don’t matter. It was so free.

“He has always had the ability to get people to follow him. If he stood up in the changing room and told people what he wanted to do, everyone else would want to do it. If he had been given leadership positions aged 23 then we wouldn’t be talking about Ben Stokes being the one of the best England captains. He’s had a very short tenure but the influence he has had on the group has been exceptional.”

Watch the full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w1p-ZB4af4.