Richard Gould says England and Wales Cricket Board executives will learn from football's mistakes and stick with Brendon McCullum
Published 23/03/2026 at 20:16 GMT
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Brendon McCullum looks set to stay on as England head coach. England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Richard Gould has said that he will learn the lessons of professional football by sticking with McCullum and the rest of the national team's leadership team. England suffered a 4-1 defeat to Australia during the NRMA Insurance men’s Ashes series.
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Chief executive Richard Gould insists the England and Wales Cricket Board will learn lessons from the world of football and avoid the "easy option" of sacking head coach Brendon McCullum.
Gould has revealed that the leadership trio of Test skipper Ben Stokes, director of cricket Rob Key and McCullum will remain in their posts despite a disappointing 4-1 defeat to Australia in the NRMA Insurance men’s Ashes series.
He is the son of Bobby Gould, the professional football manager who masterminded Wimbledon’s famous triumph over Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup final before going on to take charge of the Wales national team.
Gould believes the trigger-happy world of professional football is not the template to follow.
"My old man was a football manager," he told the BBC.
"Sacking was part of the job and it wasn't necessarily the right thing.
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”Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do.
”That's not the route that we're going to take."
Gould made the comparison while speaking at Lord's on Monday, where he and Key revealed the outcome of a review into England’s poor performances down under.
McCullum was named as the head coach of England’s Test team in May 2022 before taking charge of the limited-overs sides in January 2025.
Gould believes England’s leadership group is prepared to learn lessons from the experience in Australia.
"I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward," he said.
"These are all individuals that have got other things that they can do in their lives.
”They are all committed to doing the best for England and to learning the lessons that are evident."
McCullum's tactics were criticised throughout the series, with some suggesting that he had fallen out with Stokes over their approach to the game.
Key revealed that the England and Wales Cricket Board’s review did not suggest that such a falling out had taken place.
"At no stage was there any bust-up or anything like that," Key said.
"There's this view that it's either blocking or slogging - Ben's for blocking, Brendon's for slogging. That is not the case.
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"We still want players to go out there and be aggressive; we still want players who can score runs against the best bowlers in the world.
”They've just got to be relentless in how they do it.
”Fundamentally, there's alignment in the way we are going."
The first Test of the 2025/26 Ashes Series was a closely fought affair, but the hosts came out on top before taking the second by eight wickets and the third by 82 runs.
England were victorious in the fourth Test, but Australia finished the series on a high, beating their rivals by five wickets in Sydney.
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