CK Updates
England cricket’s Ashes review likely to retain status quo but Brendon McCullum in overtime
A harder task for the England regime is to repair the damage caused to the relationship with supporters.
This was the worst overseas Ashes performance in years, and the anger towards what happened on and off the field was immense. Plenty of fans will be staggered that no one at the top has paid with their job.
Winning cures most ills, and there is a calculated gamble from Gould, Key and co that England have a good chance of success over the coming months.
Test series against New Zealand and Pakistan this summer are winnable, ditto for a winter in South Africa and Bangladesh, before the 150th anniversary Test against Australia in Melbourne. There is not another white-ball tournament until the autumn of next year.
Still, all triumphs for the foreseeable future will come with the asterisk of previous failures against the very best. Even if England regain the urn on home soil in the summer of 2027, this regime may already have its legacy defined by what happened in Australia.
Central to the immediate future of the Test team is the relationship between coach McCullum and captain Stokes.
Suggestions the two might not be on the same page come from the divergence in their messaging in Australia. While still publicly backing each other, McCullum suggested England did not stick to their method, while Stokes batted like Geoffrey Boycott and said teams had worked out how to play against them.
There was the notion that Stokes is the more powerful figure of the pair, yet his on-field output – certainly with the bat – has waned and his body refuses to complete a Test series without picking up an injury.
McCullum and white-ball captain Harry Brook seemed much more aligned during the T20 World Cup. It had echoes of Michael Vaughan galvanising the white-ball team in 2003, prompting Nasser Hussain to hand the Test reins to Vaughan.
While there is no question – yet – that Stokes should step down as Test captain, we are certainly heading into Bazball overtime, regardless of the Ashes debacle.
When he took charge of the Test team in 2022, the New Zealander signed a four-year contract. His tenure would now be over had he not signed an extension in 2024.
McCullum is now faced with a rebuild that has strong parallels to the situation he inherited four years ago.
Back then, England had been hammered in Australia and were disconnected from their supporters. Their early summer opponents were New Zealand, as they are this year. This year the first Test is at Trent Bridge – the venue of the second Test four years ago. It was Nottingham where Bazball was born – Jonny Bairstow and all that.
On that occasion, England celebrated their astonishing victory over the Black Caps with beers on the dressing room balcony. Hours later, as night turned to day, players were filmed in a takeaway, with Ollie Pope gazing at his kebab like he had never seen anything so beautiful.
No side will relish coming up against Calvert-Lewin and this aggressive Leeds outfit at Elland Road this season.
In fact, only Arsenal (52), Manchester City (50), Manchester United (45) and Bournemouth (37) have won more Premier League points in 2026 than Leeds United (35), with the Whites suffering just a single defeat across their past 13 league matches.
Yet Newcastle‘s implosion was remarkable as a young team were bullied and outfought.
Newcastle had previously made a good start under head coach Matthias Jaissle, following so much change in the summer, and were unbeaten in their opening five games in all competitions before this reality check.
But they have faced more shots than any other side in the Premier League.
However clinical Newcastle were in the opening weeks of the campaign, they mustered just eight efforts on target against Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Bournemouth before their trip to Elland Road.
That was a dangerous cocktail going into this game.
What was most galling, though, was the visitors’ failure to match Leeds‘ bite at a raucous Elland Road.
Jaissle’s side crumbled and conceded three goals in a chastening 14-minute period in the first half.
It was a night the German manager swore in his post-match news conference to illustrate how low he felt.
“I don’t want to point fingers and point any players out tonight,” he said. “We were not matching as a team the level of intensity, the level of duel behaviours, the level of physicality.
“This is something we need to bring on the pitch in every match. This is non-negotiable. It should be the basic fundamentals of football.
“These are young lads. The learning curve needs to be fast.”
For Calvert-Lewin and Leeds, however, this was a night to remember.
Gary Hamilton has been linked with most Irish Premiership vacancies since he left his role at Glenavon in 2023.
Hamilton made 132 appearances and scored 70 goals for the east Belfast side and is already well respected at the club.
The 45-year-old has always had an eye for bringing in and developing younger talent, a skill which would benefit the Glens.
During his almost 12-year spell at the Lurgan Blues, he won the Irish Cup twice in 2014 and 2016, registered four third-place finishes and European football.
Hamilton currently manages Conference League side Ballymacash Rangers, who have won the Steel and Sons for the first time during his tenure.
A manager such as Hamilton, who has secured plenty of silverware during his career, will certainly tick a lot of the boxes that Glentoran would be hoping for in a new manager.
Whereas players in sports like football earn a salary based on a contract with the team that employs them, and athletes in individual sports like tennis and golf can earn a great deal from prize money at major tournaments, athletics competitors rely much more heavily on personal sponsorships and endorsements.
That is because they are paid no direct annual salary, and the only standardised prize money on offer is $50,000 (£37,000) for winning gold in one of the 48 track and field events at the Olympics.
That prize money was only introduced at the 2024 Games in Paris, and is paltry compared to the potential millions in winnings on offer in other major sports.
Some nations – including the USA – also choose to pay athletes who win medals from their own resources, but Britain does not.
Instead, athletes are awarded funding and grants by UK Sport, with the majority of the money coming from the National Lottery.
UK Sport ranks athletes by how likely they are to win medals at major events, and gives more funding to those whose chances it believes are better.
Athletes typically use that funding to pay for training camps, equipment, travel and, in some cases, personal support staff like physiotherapists, nutritionists and chefs.
So why would athletes be instructed to wear national team kit at the Ultimates?
The Ultimate Championship is billed as three fast-paced evenings with a record $10m (£7.4m) prize pot on offer for the biggest stars in athletics.
The condensed schedule and focus on star names is designed to appeal to viewers on television and social media – the latter likely playing a role in the focus on short, sharp bursts of action which can capture attention online.
Most viewers of athletics are used to watching athletes compete while wearing national kit at the Olympics and World Championships. Put simply, the use of a national kit makes it easier for the casual viewer to quickly spot who they should be rooting for and feel invested in the action.
But Kerr’s comments have highlighted the fact that something which may well improve the viewing experience can be felt as a direct financial negative by the athletes themselves.
With the next edition of the Ultimate Championship set to take place in September 2028, shortly after the Olympics in Los Angeles, the battle between brands and country could continue to heat up.
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