‘No d***heads': Why England Cricket hired New Zeland rugby union guru Gilbert Enoka

New York Times

22-07-2025

England have turned to the mental performance coach who created the All Blacks famous 'no d***heads' policy to give them a tougher edge in what has become a fractious Test series against India.
Gilbert Enoka has been hired by his fellow New Zealander Brendon McCullum to harden up an England side the coach said were 'too nice' ahead of the third Test at Lord's, which was marked by a number of clashes between the sides.
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Enoka was part of a training camp in London ahead of the Test summer and addressed the England players ahead of the fourth Test at Old Trafford, which starts on Wednesday.
He will stay with the team for part of the game in what will be a temporary appointment aimed at giving England the edge in a series they lead 2-1 with two to play.
The Athletic examines Enoka's background and why England are working with him.
He is a mental performance coach with immense sporting experience, including working with the New Zealand cricket team — where he met England coach Brendon McCullum — the New Zealand netball team and a previous spell in English football with Chelsea, where he worked as an advisor two years ago.
But Enoka is best known for his long association with New Zealand rugby, spending 15 years as their mental skills coach and another seven as leadership manager. That was where he brought in the 'no dickheads' policy said to be integral to the All Blacks two World Cup wins in 2011 and 2015.
A d***head, according to Enoka, is someone who makes everything about themselves, puts themselves ahead of the team, believes they are entitled to preferential treatment, operates deceitfully or seeks unnecessary attention for their work.
The policy emphasises that if an individual cannot change their ways they should be removed from the team regardless of their talent.
McCullum was a pioneer of a nice, positive, friendly style of play when he was New Zealand captain and has brought a similar approach to his Bazball project with Ben Stokes.
But he told the England team before the third Test that they were 'too nice' and encouraged the aggressive attitude that saw them hit back strongly at India after they confronted Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett for wasting time on the third evening.
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The England captain said on Tuesday ahead of the fourth Test that Enoka had been brought in to help take England to 'the next level' during a spell of 10 Tests against India and Australia that will define the Stokes-McCullum era.
'We had a lot of time off after playing in New Zealand last winter and I spoke with Baz (McCullum) a lot about what we want to do and how we could take the team forward,' said Stokes. 'We can say as much as we want but we don't have the knowledge or experience in pushing teams onto the next level of where we want to go.
'Luckily Baz has known Gilbert for a long time and he's been able to put into words what we want to do a lot better than me and Baz would ever be able to do.
'He says we are similar in terms of our mindset to the All Blacks and that was nice to hear because they are such an unbelievable team. It's about culture, behaviour, training and being as good as we possibly can be.'
While England have looked to toughen up, India have looked to the other Old Trafford where they spent time with Manchester United's players and their head coach Ruben Amorim before beginning their preparation for Wednesday's Test.
An epic crossover 🔝
Indian Cricket Team 🤝🏻 Manchester United#TeamIndia | @ManUtd pic.twitter.com/VNcovRIs5X
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 21, 2025
Spinner Kuldeep Yadav, a United fanatic and keen follower of English football in general, even quizzed Amorim on his tactics ahead of the new Premier League season.
'A lot of our players are big Manchester United fans and it was great to be able to meet them and share our thoughts on each other's sports,' said India captain Shubman Gill. 'The English players on the United team clearly knew about cricket but said they weren't very good at it.'
Clearly it's a factor in England's approach. Stokes doubled down on that on Tuesday and promised more of the same at Old Trafford.
'It's not something we will look to go out and repeat because that could take our focus off what we need to do out in the middle,' said the England captain. 'But by no means will we take a backward step. If the opposition are confrontational towards us we will try to give a bit back.'
Gill, meanwhile, remains adamant that England were to blame for the bad feelings, which began when the India captain clashed with Crawley, telling the England opener to 'grow a pair of f****** balls'.
'The English batsmen had seven minutes of play left when they started their innings that night and were 90 seconds late getting to the crease,' Gill said. 'Not 10 or 20. They were 90 seconds late. That is not something that comes within the spirit of the game.
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'I wouldn't say my reaction is something I'm proud of but there was a build-up to that. When you see things that should not happen sometimes emotions come out of nowhere.'
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(Top photos: Gilbert Enoka and the England team; Getty Images)