Darren Gough Says McCullum Was Lucky to Keep England Job
darren gough said Brendon McCullum was “very lucky” to stay on as England head coach after the 4-1 Ashes series loss in Australia in 2025/26. He said the pressure should be on the England set-up after that result, and he was also left “hurt” by being overlooked for the national selector role.
Gough, 55, put his criticism in direct terms. “I think Baz McCullum is realistically very lucky to carry on as England’s head coach,” he said, adding: “If you’re not winning games your job is going to come under scrutiny.”
McCullum and Stokes Stay In Place
McCullum and red-ball captain Ben Stokes kept their jobs ahead of a three-Test series at home to New Zealand, even after the Ashes defeat in Australia. The England and Wales Cricket Board preferred former Australia batsman Marcus North for the national selector role, another decision Gough took personally.
“I was disheartened. I’ll be honest, it did hurt me,” he said about missing out. Gough, a former England fast bowler and former Yorkshire managing director of cricket, said he had the experience to handle the role and the temperament to work in it now.
Gough Questions ECB Direction
“This is a hard role because there’s a lot of repair job to be done,” Gough said of the selector post. He said he could have challenged the current management in “the right areas” and argued the job needed someone prepared to push back.
He also took aim at the direction of the wider set-up. “They’re saying they are trying to bring England cricket and county cricket closer together – I don’t think they are because we’ve got a Kiwi coach and we’ve now got an Australian selector,” he said. “I don’t think that’s brought the game closer to the county game at all. I do think there’s a big, big repair job there.”
Pressure Builds Before New Zealand
Gough said England need “a bit of steel” and hoped that would show in the summer. He also said McCullum and the rest of the leadership are under pressure, which is now the reality of carrying on after a 4-1 Ashes loss. The coaching setup has survived for now, but the scrutiny attached to that result has not gone away.
