Alastair Cook expresses interest in being Brendon McCullum’s assistant coach at England: ‘You need a variety of different people’

“Ultimately if McCullum stays it has got to be up to him who he wants in his backroom team and he has to pick who he thinks are the best coaches around. I do think, though, that in any team you need a variety of different people and there has been too much familiarity in this set-up.

“I think with McCullum, the spin coach Jeetan Patel and Tim Southee, who before this series was fast-bowling coach, you’ve got three good blokes but three fairly similar personalities. A bit of variety would help England,” he further said.

While captain Ben Stokes has also copped criticism, Brendon McCullum’s position as England’s Test head coach has particularly come under the scanner after the manner in which the side unravelled during the first three Tests of the Ashes. England were hardly able to compete against Australia over the course of those games and their batters seemingly being unable to play the long game in Test cricket was brutally exposed by the ruthless Australian bowlers led by Mitchell Starc.

Harry Brook, the world No.2 Test batter, has prominently drawn the ire of former cricketers for getting starts and then falling to a rash shot more often than not. Atherton said in his column that someone like Cook would be able to help the likes of Brook rein their instincts in.

“Could one of the “has-beens” — as Stokes labelled former captains — step into a right-hand man role beside McCullum for Test matches? Alastair Cook, if he could be persuaded, would be a perfect candidate. Having retired from Test cricket in 2018, he is in touch with the game, but distanced enough to have seen it from beyond the boundary. Only Joe Root, Ben Duckett and Stokes, of the present team, played with him, but his status is also guaranteed among those with whom he did not play,” Atherton wrote.

“If McCullum’s great strength — and it is a great strength — is making his players feel ten feet tall, then Cook could help with the drive and the discipline… He is really tough. He is more opinionated than he sometimes lets on on television, and he is stubborn and sure of his views. He would not be afraid to challenge Key, McCullum and Stokes and he may open the eyes and minds of those players, such as Harry Brook, who have known only one way.”

Cook had previously been critical of how McCullum and Stokes treated County cricket. Speaking on TNT Sports at Lunch on Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test, Cook said that England under the current management have stopped rewarding good performances in County cricket. “This has been a real reminder that the traditional values of selection in Test cricket are still important. These guys have totally and utterly said County cricket’s irrelevant. There’s a massive disconnect at this minute between this England side and County cricket. I think that needs to be addressed. Because if you are banging out runs or wickets in County cricket, there must be a path into the Test team and I think at the minute there isn’t. So that needs to be looked at.”

Cook had been England’s highest-ever Test run scorer till October 2024, when Root overtook him. He retired with 12,472 runs in 161 Tests at an average of 45.35 with 33 centuries and 57 half-centuries. Cook continued playing domestic first class cricket for five years after retiring from Tests in 2018 and retired in 2023 with a whopping 26,643 runs in 352 matches at an average of 46.41. He scored an eye-watering 74 first class centuries and 125 half-centuries.