Latest news with #RobKey
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Ben Stokes targets No 1 spot in world Test rankings: ‘One more place to go'
England under Ben Stokes have never lacked ambition, but they go into a defining period of Test cricket with one in particular in mind: to become the first England side in 15 years to take top spot in the International Cricket Council's rankings – officially the best in the world. 'If we win what we've got coming up, the likelihood is that we will be at the top of that leaderboard,' Stokes said. 'There's no doubt in my mind we have the ability to be that team.' The ICC's latest annual update placed England at No 2, behind Australia, with five-match series against India this summer and the Australians in the winter to follow the one-off game against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge that starts on Thursday. Related: Bazball's moment of truth arrives in year that will define era of McCullum and Stokes England last took the No 1 ranking in August 2011, on their way to beating India 4-0 at home, before losing it against South Africa the following summer. The possibility of repeating that feat has been discussed by Stokes, the coach Brendon McCullum, and the England and Wales Cricket Board's managing director of men's cricket, Rob Key. 'When the rankings came out, I did send Baz and Keys [Rob Key] a text saying: 'We've got one more place to go',' Stokes said. 'Baz uses this phrase a lot: 'We're starting from a place of strength.' For us to be able to build on that, and everyone knows that we've got improvement to do. It's very exciting that we are where we are as a team at the moment. Everyone understands and knows we've definitely got another level to go to.' One word in particular was to the fore as Stokes laid out the path ahead for England on the eve of their first game of the summer: 'The word I love and what I've tried to instil in this team is 'dominance' and 'dominate',' he said. 'Whatever situation we find ourselves in, that's the word I want to be at the front of our heads. I want this team to dominate series, to dominate days, dominate every session. It's not always going to happen like that, but that's the mindset I want us to go out with every single day, so everything is aimed towards winning.' News of a fresh injury setback for Jofra Archer, whose damaged right thumb has ruled him out of the forthcoming ODI series against West Indies – for which Lancashire's Luke Wood has been drafted in – and the England Lions game he was hoping to use as a springboard into a summer of red-ball cricket, is fresh evidence that plans can go awry. The Lions squad was announced and Stokes himself may join it depending on his performance against Zimbabwe, his first competitive action since December, when he tore his hamstring in Hamilton. 'It will just be how I feel at the end of this, if I feel I need any more game time before we head into India,' he said. Stokes insisted the Zimbabwe game was 'our sole focus at the moment'. But he will not be alone in thinking ahead to the India series, which starts at Headingley on 20 June – particularly after the captain said one of the batters in this game will be making way for Jacob Bethell once the 21-year-old, who returned from his debut series in New Zealand in the winter with three half-centuries and an average of 52, returns from the IPL. 'If you talk about nailing down a position, Beth has done himself the world of good by the performances he put in there, with being part of our plans going forward,' Stokes said. 'Obviously he's going to be back in the UK for that India series, so I think you can put two and two together.'
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Ben Stokes targets No 1 spot in world Test rankings: ‘One more place to go'
England under Ben Stokes have never lacked ambition, but they go into a defining period of Test cricket with one in particular in mind: to become the first England side in 15 years to take top spot in the International Cricket Council's rankings – officially the best in the world. 'If we win what we've got coming up, the likelihood is that we will be at the top of that leaderboard,' Stokes said. 'There's no doubt in my mind we have the ability to be that team.' Advertisement The ICC's latest annual update placed England at No 2, behind Australia, with five-match series against India this summer and the Australians in the winter to follow the one-off game against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge that starts on Thursday. Related: Bazball's moment of truth arrives in year that will define era of McCullum and Stokes England last took the No 1 ranking in August 2011, on their way to beating India 4-0 at home, before losing it against South Africa the following summer. The possibility of repeating that feat has been discussed by Stokes, the coach Brendon McCullum, and the England and Wales Cricket Board's managing director of men's cricket, Rob Key. 'When the rankings came out, I did send Baz and Keys [Rob Key] a text saying: 'We've got one more place to go',' Stokes said. 'Baz uses this phrase a lot: 'We're starting from a place of strength.' For us to be able to build on that, and everyone knows that we've got improvement to do. It's very exciting that we are where we are as a team at the moment. Everyone understands and knows we've definitely got another level to go to.' Advertisement One word in particular was to the fore as Stokes laid out the path ahead for England on the eve of their first game of the summer: 'The word I love and what I've tried to instil in this team is 'dominance' and 'dominate',' he said. 'Whatever situation we find ourselves in, that's the word I want to be at the front of our heads. I want this team to dominate series, to dominate days, dominate every session. It's not always going to happen like that, but that's the mindset I want us to go out with every single day, so everything is aimed towards winning.' News of a fresh injury setback for Jofra Archer, whose damaged right thumb has ruled him out of the forthcoming ODI series against West Indies – for which Lancashire's Luke Wood has been drafted in – and the England Lions game he was hoping to use as a springboard into a summer of red-ball cricket, is fresh evidence that plans can go awry. The Lions squad was announced and Stokes himself may join it depending on his performance against Zimbabwe, his first competitive action since December, when he tore his hamstring in Hamilton. 'It will just be how I feel at the end of this, if I feel I need any more game time before we head into India,' he said. Stokes insisted the Zimbabwe game was 'our sole focus at the moment'. But he will not be alone in thinking ahead to the India series, which starts at Headingley on 20 June – particularly after the captain said one of the batters in this game will be making way for Jacob Bethell once the 21-year-old, who returned from his debut series in New Zealand in the winter with three half-centuries and an average of 52, returns from the IPL. 'If you talk about nailing down a position, Beth has done himself the world of good by the performances he put in there, with being part of our plans going forward,' Stokes said. 'Obviously he's going to be back in the UK for that India series, so I think you can put two and two together.'
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘We are a passionately multiracial team': Zimbabwe return to England transformed
Twenty-two years is a long time, even in a sport that measures its games in days and its history in centuries. The last time England played a Test match against Zimbabwe, in 2003, Rob Key was in the middle order instead of the managing director's job, Jimmy Anderson was a 20-year-old tearaway playing in his very first series, and the England and Wales Cricket Board was just about to launch the world's very first professional Twenty20 tournament. Zimbabwean cricket has changed, too. Back then the team was in the earliest stages of a transformation that was meant to turn cricket from a minority game, played by the small white population, into a sport that better represented the whole country. They have been hard years, riven by player strikes, political interference, maladministration and a miserable drop-off in results. The team temporarily withdrew from Test cricket, suspended their domestic competition and were repeatedly censured by the International Cricket Council. They lost so many players through emigration to England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, that even now you could build a hell of a good Zimbabwean squad out of people who are making a living overseas. And yet, at the end of it all, the process was, by one important measure, a success. The squad that came on tour in 2003 was majority white, the team that has come this year is majority black. Related: Blast from the past: Zimbabwe are finally coming in from the cold 'Despite all the politics, despite all the chaos that we've been through, cricket is now a national game,' says David Coltart, 'supported by an overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans, black and white and other races.' Coltart is the elected mayor of Bulawayo, a white man elected in a mostly black city. He has spent his life navigating the bitter, heated, complicated politics of his country. He has been fighting for the Zimbabwe he believes in ever since the 1990s, first as a founding member of the Movement for Democratic Change and a key figure in the opposition to Robert Mugabe, then as minister for education and sport in Morgan Tsvangirai's coalition government. More than five million people have emigrated from the country in that time. Coltart is one of the ones who stayed. 'I believe in Zimbabwe with a passion,' he says, 'I believe in its people and its future, and I believe it is a country worth fighting for.' When Andy Flower and Henry Olonga made their public protest against 'the death of democracy' in their country in 2003, it was Coltart they asked to help draft their statement. 'My sadness is that Henry and Andy didn't stay in the country,' he says, 'because they remain hugely influential figures. It's not a criticism. I understand why they felt compelled to leave. But we need figures like them.' He mourns Heath Streak, who did stay, but who died in 2023. 'Heath provided inspiration to people on both sides of the argument. He was a white man who was fluent in Ndebele, and who attracted a lot of sympathy and affection from a lot of black people, and yet he remained an inspirational people for white farmers who'd been dispossessed of their land.' For Coltart, the Zimbabwean team is emblematic of the society it represents. 'We punch above our weight.' Which is why he believes transformation had to happen. 'It was very necessary,' Coltart says. 'Cricket in Zimbabwe 30 years ago was a minority sport. If you just looked at the crowds they were, relatively speaking, very few black people in them. Even aside from the principle of the matter, that situation was completely unsustainable.' He just wishes it had been done differently. He makes a comparison with the redistribution of land, and the violent farm takeovers which were the cause of so much pain, grief and injustice in the 2000s. 'The land holdings were unjust,' he says, 'But we could have done it without violence. Now, there wasn't violence in cricket, but I think that when you look at the dreadful collapse of cricket in 2004, that could have been avoided.' When Zimbabwe stopped playing Test cricket, Coltart helped lead the campaign to restore it. In government he spent a lot of time lobbying the English to start playing fixtures against his country again. The ECB turned its back on the country, even after the end of the Mugabe regime. It was only when Richard Gould took over as the chief executive of the ECB that things finally changed. 'They disregarded us and while I understand the reasons, I've never felt that England should not be playing Zimbabwe,' Coltart says. 'Although I'm a strident critic of the Zimbabwean regime, I've always believed in the power of sport to bridge divides.' Even now, he would be against a boycott of Afghan cricket on similar grounds. 'Because if the players and the board members themselves are trying to do the right thing but are being constrained by the government, then you've got to support them and encourage them, not boycott them. Use the game, the opportunities it provides, to build relations, and to hold them to higher standards.' He is still trying to do that in his own country now, as mayor. Bulawayo has just won the right to host the Street Child Cricket World Cup. But Coltart is deeply concerned about the way the sport is being run. 'There's still far too much politics involved in Zimbabwe Cricket, in the running of the organisation, and even in the selection policies. I still fear that we're not spending the money that we get as best we should. I'm a politician, but I don't think politicians should be anywhere near cricket administration. I would rather see people whose primary attribute is a great passion for cricket being involved in the running of the sport. I'd like to see our best players from the past dominating the selection panel, black and white.' Still, he beams when he thinks that Zimbabwe are going to play a Test at Trent Bridge this week. 'Despite the politics, despite the abuse of the rule of law and corruption in the country, all the concerns that I have regarding the government, the vast majority of Zimbabweans are united. It's a wonderful country and you will see that in our cricket, we are a passionately multiracial team, and that's a wonderful projection of our country.'
Telegraph
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Those calling for an end to Bazball should be careful what they wish for
England have an image problem and they know it. Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have tackled it head on this week in the run-up to the Test match against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge. Stokes denied they play too much golf and said he has been off alcohol since January 2. McCullum insisted they need to be humble. Rob Key has banned the G-word (golf), although not playing it, and was even interviewed on the course yesterday by Sky Sports. "We can't wait to get going" 🙌 Managing director of the England men's cricket team Rob Key looks ahead to a HUGE summer for England's Test side 🏴 — Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) May 21, 2025 'We always want the public to be on our side,' Stokes said at Trent Bridge. 'We know how much support we get and we value that incredibly. But we have said 'let's be a bit smarter about some of our comments and how we deliver them'. I partly take a bit of blame for that.' Six months of Test-match inactivity, since signing off 2024 in Hamilton with a defeat, have left room for a lot of thinking, possibly too much, and the negatives about this England side – a perceived insouciance towards training and losing – have festered. There is pressure too that was not there a year ago. Five Tests against India and Australia are widely seen as make or break for the regime, regardless of expiry dates on contracts. It feels like the Stokes-McCullum-Key axis either strengthens or falls in January. Some will say the latter cannot come soon enough, going by some comments from Telegraph readers, who care deeply about Test cricket. Here is a sample left on our stories over the past week. 'McCullum should go. Bazball continues to fail,' wrote Nicholas Cashmore. Neil McDougall said: 'I cannot wait for this whole arrogant bunch to be gone so I can support England again. I can't stand the director, can't stand the coach and can't stand the captain.' Tom Dale: 'I detest the way the game has gone under his [Stokes's] captaincy.' But be careful what you wish for, and perhaps appreciate it while you can because there will be calls to rip up the whole Bazball project if they lose in Australia, which would ruin some of the progress made. Before this regime took over, England had won one match in 17, played some desperately turgid cricket and forgotten their job was to entertain the public. The unforgivable failure to go for a target at Lord's against New Zealand in the first Test, after the lifting of Covid restrictions, was a low nobody wants to experience again. The team and mindset have been transformed since then. Just three players will appear at Trent Bridge this week who played in Joe Root's last Test as captain (Root, Stokes and Zak Crawley). England are second in the International Cricket Council Test rankings, which now starts with results from the beginning of the 2022 summer, so taking in the Bazball era. They played a full part in one of the most dramatic Ashes series of all time and have won four Tests in Pakistan, when England had previously gone more than 50 years winning just two in total. Harry Brook, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Smith, Ben Duckett, Brydon Carse and Gus Atkinson have either emerged or re-established themselves in this team. This week Josh Tongue and Sam Cook could add more options. Stokes has created an empathetic, welcoming environment in which debutants have flourished. It is unlikely James Bracey would freeze on England debut the way he did when he was picked by Chris Silverwood and Root. Stokes has a win percentage of 59, better than Mike Brearley and anyone who has captained England in more than 15 Tests. England have batted at 4.5 runs an over and drawn just one game – that rain-affected Ashes Test in Manchester. There have been spectacular wins and inglorious defeats. McCullum has encouraged a club team environment that attracts players to Test cricket and away from the clutches of the franchise gigs constantly on offer. Loyalty to Crawley hard to fathom The negatives are on the field. The looseness to which they approach dead rubbers, and how they can write off Test matches if they feel the conditions are against their 'natural game'. The defeat in the third Test in Rawalpindi earlier this year was the worst example of that guileless approach. The loyalty to Crawley some find hard to fathom; the choice of Smith and Jonny Bairstow over Ben Foakes is a debate that continues to rumble and snubbing county pros in favour of Shoaib Bashir and Josh Hull winds up some of the game's base. England argue Crawley can win a Test in a session, Foakes has had plenty of opportunities (14 of his 25 Tests were played under this management) and the conditions in the championship are so far removed from Test cricket that they have to make their own judgments. For example, James Rew won selection for the first Test squad based on a second-innings 116 against Essex, during which the average pace was 75mph, 10 below what Australia's attack bowls at. Where they need to be smarter is rotating bowlers and talking Stokes down when he is on one of his sleeves-up, marathon bowling spells. Fine-tuning their approach to the conditions on a given day and reading the room will make a big difference and help them to stay the course in series. But in the end, another Telegraph reader adroitly summed up what they need to do. Over to John Williams. 'If they're winning Test matches, and series, they can play as much golf as they like.'
RNZ News
22-05-2025
- Sport
- RNZ News
Cricket: Brendon McCullum wants England to show a bit more humility
England cricket coach Brendon McCullum. Photo: Kerry Marshall/ England head coach Brendon McCullum said his players must try to show a bit more humility and remember that they are still being judged by how they act away from the cricket field. McCullum and captain Ben Stokes have championed England's results-oriented approach built primarily on their take-no-prisoners batting style. While the aggressive brand of cricket won them 11 of the first 12 matches under the leadership pairing, its effectiveness waned and they lost test series in India and Pakistan last year. In March, England director of cricket Rob Key said players needed to "stop talking rubbish" after some made casual comments about not caring about outcomes. "It's not just about what you do on the cricket field," McCullum said ahead of their one-off test against Zimbabwe at Nottingham beginning on Thursday. "It's how you carry yourself. It's how you interact with the public. It's the messaging that you give." The New Zealander added that he wanted the players "show some humility and not feel out of touch with the general population". With a home series against India and trip to Australia scheduled later this year, McCullum wanted his team to give fans the same sense of excitement as they did early in his tenure. "I think people were excited with how we played at the start, enthralled by the free-wheeling cricket we played," he said. "I felt they had a sense of belonging to that type of group. "But [since then] we have let opportunities slip and perhaps not been as smart as we possibly could with some of our comments to the media." - Reuters
