Reports: Brendon McCullum frontrunner to become England’s white-ball coach

After the axing of Chris Silverwood for England’s underwhelming performances in red-ball cricket in the last 12 months, the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has taken a big call as far as the appointment of the main coaching staff is concerned. While reportedly they decided to appoint India’s 2011 World Cup-winning coach Gary Kirsten as their next Test coach, they have also found a suitable candidate for the limited-overs setup.

The candidate is none other than one of the best batters of his time and arguably the most strategic captain to have led New Zealand from the front Brendon McCullum. According to reports in the Daily Mail, McCullum has been “added to their wishlist” and is the top contender to take up the new role for the reigning ODI world champions.

Meanwhile, England’s new Managing Director of Men’s cricket Robert Key has said that he will keep the national cricket team’s white-ball captain Eoin Morgan in the loop for all the appointments and other decisions.

Eoin is someone I would speak to about: Robert Key

“Eoin is someone I would speak to about so many different things, and in terms of white-ball cricket he’s on top of all that”, said Key as quoted by The Mirror. “He knows what he wants and he knows a lot of the coaches around, so he is one of the first ports of call for that”, he added.

Just like Kirsten, Brendon McCullum also has a wealth of experience under his belt as far as coaching is concerned. He is currently the head coach of the two-time IPL winners Kolkata Knight Riders and had previously coached Trinbago Knight Riders to the 2020 Caribbean Premier League crown.

Apart from that, he also has one of the sharpest cricketing brains which helped him in revolutionizing New Zealand cricket completely after he was handed over the captaincy reins in 2012. Under him, the Black Caps made it to their first-ever World Cup final in the 2015 edition which was co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia. Unfortunately for New Zealand, they could not cross the final hurdle as they went down to Michael Clarke’s Aussies in a one-sided contest.