England will not change until this arrogant regime is removed

But no, the three wise men knew better, even though none of them won a Test series in Australia and our captain embarrassed himself and disparaged the ex-players by telling the world that these old ex-players “were”.

In other words, they had nothing to learn, they weren’t going to change or listen to anyone outside the team because they knew best.

Once Ben realized how rude his comments were, he made it worse by trying to say it was a typo instead of just apologizing.

After a chastened England lost the first three Tests and the Ashes in just 11 days, the three wise men were under pressure to keep their jobs. Brendon says they are going to learn some lessons and Key backs Brendon up.

Of course they don’t want to lose their jobs. It’s a cute number and well paid. How can we trust any of them when they’ve all been so adamant in their opinions for three years? Does a leopard change its spots? How do we know they won’t carry on as normal?

Joe Root said: “It would be stupid to change the management team.” Really? After such a heavy Ashes loss, would any company or sporting body say to their management team, “Same again, please”?

Sport is a business with results. This trio would not last five minutes in football or the commercial world. There is a good chance that the suits at the ECB will keep their heads down and hope that all the fuss will eventually die down and it will be business as usual.

If the three wise men remain, the ECB must make some change. Key should be asked to invite some past greats like Ian Botham, Graham Gooch and David Gower to sit with him and McCullum, and even the captain, and get some fresh and different ideas first-hand. Former players want England to win and be Ashes series winners, so you know what they’re talking about. How many times can I say that we ex-players want England to win.

A large majority of cricket lovers feel badly disappointed. Not because we lost, but how we lost. The Ashes two years ago in England were disappointing, but this tour was terrible. Australia was spot on. They have an ordinary batting unit dependent on Steve Smith, Travis Head and wicketkeeper Alex Carey.

The bowling unit was decimated, with Josh Hazlewood out for the series, Pat Cummins only fit in one Test and Nathan Lyon injured in Adelaide.

It was lucky but England blew it. There was no proper preparation, just a “it’ll be fine on the day” attitude.

There was a poor selection before and during the tour. No backup start if the main two lose form or get injured. No proper midfielder. No dedicated second spinner.

They failed to pick the main spinner, Shoaib Bashir, in Adelaide and Sydney. For ages, this management has played him with a view to success in Australia. Then when England arrived in Australia they abandoned him.

Anyone could see that Will Jacks was picked to strengthen the batting but was not good enough as a spinner. Mark Wood and Jofra Archer have been thirsty for too long.

It was the wrong thinking of the bowling coaches and physios who thought that once Wood and Archer were declared fit, they could turn up and perform well in Test matches.

It was naïve to the point of stupidity to believe that their bodies would withstand the strain of so many bowling spells in the pressure cooker of an Ashes series.

Root said: “Every player has improved.” Really? Where? As? All I can say is Joe must see things through rose colored glasses.

Zak Crawley’s technique has not improved. He always has a big wicket when fielding and flashes outside the off stump. Ollie Pope still has a poor defense and gets into attack more than getting good balls. He fidgets and jumps like a cat on a hot tin roof.

Ben Duckett has never learned how to leave the ball at the stumps, so when he doesn’t hit the balls easily early on and starts to lose a bit of confidence, he gets out and doesn’t know whether to stick or curl. Harry Brook has talent to die for but still gets into trouble instead of winning the match against England.

Stokes still struggles against spinners when the ball is turning, especially when it is moving away from him. And now he’s stuck either blocking or attacking without a middle hitting path.

Jamie Smith has the ability to play the shot but under pressure he gives away his wicket without thinking about the state of the match. His dismissal in Sydney was a no-brainer and is indicative of this squad of players. This is not the first time Smith has been irresponsible. He never thinks about the situation of the match or the consequences for the other players who come after him with the new ball two in five overs.

There were three balls in the second innings against Mitchell Starc where Harry Brook tried to get past him and missed each time. I wanted to scream, “Harry, stop it, what are you doing?”

Jacks’ mad two-ball innings struck over the top as England struggled. They sum up the culture in the team – no accountability, they don’t enjoy reading the match situation and no one blames them and explains that it’s not smart.

But hey, McCullum and Stokes are telling the boys that it doesn’t matter if you get out, you’ll still be picked for the next match, so they don’t have to change anything or work to improve, so why should we be surprised that they’re batting as irresponsibly?

Or is Joe saying that England are better under Stokes and McCullum than when he captained Australia in 2021-22 and England lost 4-0? Coach Chris Silverwood and director of cricket Ashley Giles lost their jobs. If so he is right but when he was captain we lost games so badly with such low morale that everything could have been better. Those times are easier to forget.

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There was one positive: 22-year-old Jacob Bethell scored a fine century. The highest compliment I can pay him is that he looked quality and had time, which is the hallmark of the best batsmen. He was compact, calm and confident. Has a good range of strokes: off drive, back foot drive, cut and sweep.

My advice would be if you go early on #3 against the new ball, let the hook miss until later. Only jerks take on the best bowlers with the new ball. Play your way too. Don’t get lured into Bazball.

I like Brendon. I don’t know anyone who didn’t like him and he was a breath of fresh air for English cricket which was exciting and encouraging.

But Brendon is a gambler who thinks he will always win his money back. So the casinos always win in the end. How many hopes start well but end in tears? This is because they don’t know when to stop or change their routine.

I just think Brendon has taken us as far as he can go and we need someone else to take England to the next level. So many of us still say we love the game of cricket in England. It would be delicate, but for heaven’s sake, not to read the match and judge when it’s time to play with caution and common sense.

Brendon is a gambler who thinks he will always win his money back. So the casinos always win in the end.

Sometimes you have to understand when to tone down a batsman’s aggression. But no, risk taker Brendon instilled in his team that they should attack and go for it.

Ego, arrogance and hubris trump common sense. It worked spectacularly at times and gave us exciting winning cricket against lesser teams, but the big two India and Australia were good enough to wait for England to destroy themselves on the same ego, arrogance and hubris.

Brendon said we’d have to learn a lesson. This really bores me because he has had over three years to learn and adapt but nothing has made him change his ways. Can a gambler change? I think not. It’s in the blood.

Nobody wants England to go back to defensive cricket. We all love the rate of scoring, but Test matches are like playing chess. Sometimes you attack and gain an advantage, other times you stay patient and sit back and wait for your opponent to make a bad move and then strike. This is how we would like our England cricket team to play. With a bit of pragmatism. Is it that hard?

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The Aussies came to England two years ago with Bazball rubbish and England duly self-destructed. Before England arrived in Australia, Darren Lehmann, now coach at Northamptonshire, wrote that Baseball would not win in Australia. Australian newspapers and former Australia players said it wouldn’t work.

But our three wise men knew better, so we were underprepared and underperformed and missed the Ashes.