‘I was approached by ECB before Brendon McCullum’ – Former Australian captain makes shocking revelation

The legendary Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting revealed a shocking offer from England Cricket Board (ECB) for a head coach role prior to Brendon McCullum’s appointment. Ponting revealed that he was the first person ECB approached for a big job after Chris Silverwood’s sacking in February 2023. 

England cricket went through some big changes in management after their embarrassing 4-0 defeat to Australia in the previous Ashes. The former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum replaced Chris Silverwood as a head coach while Ben Stokes was appointed as the new Test team captain after Joe Root’s decision to step down. Rob Key replaced Ashley Giles as the new ECB director and quickly overhauled English cricket. 

Ponting said that Key immediately made a few calls regarding the head coach role. But the former Australian skipper explained that he was not ready for a full-time international coaching job. 

“I actually got asked before Brendon took the job – there you go, you guys might be the first to find that out,” Ponting told the Guerilla Cricket podcast. “I did take some calls from Robert Key as soon as he took over that job.”

“But I’m just not ready for a full-time international coaching job, where I am at in my life. Having travelled as much as I have, with young kids now, I just don’t want to be away as much as I was. And even talking to Brendon, his family is only just arriving today. When you have got kids that are in school, moving them around, that’s not what I want to do,” the former Australian batter said.

However, McCullum’s appointment is doing wonders for England cricket. McCullum and Stokes adopted an aggressive brand of cricket in Test and that has helped them win 11 of 14 matches so far. England are yet to lose a Test series since McCullum’s arrival but are trailing the ongoing Ashes 2023 by 0-1 at home.

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