Ben Stokes plays down talk of McCullum disagreement but plans ‘different’ path to success
Ben Stokes has moved to play down suggestions of a disagreement between himself and Brendon McCullum, insisting he and the England head coach remain aligned despite an Ashes defeat that, at times, suggested otherwise,In a video released by the England and Wales Cricket Board on Tuesday, the England Test captain stressed that he and McCullum agreeing with each other all the time would be “unhealthy”,They continue to share the same overall vision for the team, he added, but things will look “different” this summer,Stokes said: “As similar as me and Brendon are, we’re also dissimilar in other areas as well,But the thing we both want is to be as successful as we possibly can.
How we get to being successful might be the same here, but slightly differs there – but we will always end up in the same place by having these discussions.“We agree 95% of the time on things, but those 5% things that we might have different views on, we talk about it between each other and then we end up getting to the place where we want to get to.Agreeing on every single thing, that’s just impossible.Saying we weren’t aligned, I think, is a massive overstatement.”Stokes was publicly keen that McCullum be retained as head coach in the wake of the winter’s 4-1 Ashes defeat, even if reports suggested the pair went on to criticise each other during the ECB’s internal review.
McCullum kept his job but it is clear the governing body now expects greater professionalism from the team.The pair never fell out on tour but it was hard not to watch the Ashes and conclude that they had gone their separate ways tactically.After three and a half years spent encouraging batters to be aggressive, Stokes pivoted at 2-0 down by suddenly demanding that his players put a higher price on their wicket.The upshot was a confused performance during the series-sealing defeat in Adelaide, where batter-friendly conditions that England would typically have attacked were met with unusual circumspection.McCullum was privately frustrated by the philosophical gear shift but chose not to question his captain publicly.
Despite this latest public relations push, how the team now approaches its cricket is the big question for visits by New Zealand and Pakistan this summer.Tours to South Africa and Bangladesh follow next winter – plus a one-off Test in Melbourne to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the format – before the home Ashes in 2027.Stokes added: “I’m very confident in mine and Brendon’s ability to be able to work together, because we’ve done it for such a long period of time now.But work together in a slightly different way.“The main point of me and Brendon is our alignment towards winning things and making this team as good as they can be.
That’s always been the thing since we started.“It might just look a little bit different now to how that operates – on the back of four years working together.We still want to win everything, and we still want to give the guys the best chance that they possibly can of being as good as they can be.” Stokes, 34, is expected to start his season when Durham play at Worcestershire from 8 May.The all-rounder was struck by a stray ball during a net session in February, forcing him to undergo surgery on a broken cheekbone.
Iran war escalation could trigger global recession, IMF warns
A further escalation in the Iran war could trigger a global recession that would affect the UK more than any of the other G7 nations, the International Monetary Fund has warned.Against an increasingly volatile backdrop, the Washington-based fund said the economic damage from the Middle East conflict was steadily rising as it cut its growth forecasts for 2026 based on the impact of the war so far.In its half-yearly update, the IMF said the UK would suffer the sharpest growth downgrade and joint highest inflation rate in the G7 this year, even if the fallout from soaring energy costs can be contained by the middle of 2026.However, under a worst-case “severe scenario”, involving a drawn-out war and persistently higher energy prices, it said the world would face “a close call for a global recession” for only the fifth time since 1980.The IMF’s warning prompted the UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves, into the British government’s harshest rebuke yet to President Trump
South East Water chief executive to forgo his bonus over ‘unacceptable outages’
The chief executive of South East Water has said he will forgo his bonus in an act of penitence for “unacceptable outages” that left thousands of customers in Kent and Sussex without water.David Hinton told MPs on the environment, food and rural affairs select committee that he had decided not to accept an additional “performance payment” this year. Instead, he will receive only his £400,000 salary.In a statement released after his appearance in parliament on Tuesday, Hinton apologised to customers, half of whom in one town were now stockpiling bottled water in anticipation of future incidents, MPs also heard.South East Water customers in Tunbridge Wells faced significant supply disruptions in November and December
China now the ‘good guy’ on AI as Trump takes ‘wild west’ approach, MPs told
China is now the “good guy” on AI rather than Donald Trump’s US, where the technology is being pursued in a dangerous “wild west” manner, a former UN and UK government adviser has told MPs.Prof Dame Wendy Hall, who was a member of the UN’s AI advisory board and co-wrote a review of AI for Theresa May’s government, told the House of Commons business and trade committee that China was backing multinational attempts to introduce global governance of AI, in contrast to America, which had set up a race between profit-hungry companies that relied on hype.“China is doing some amazing work in AI, and in fact, at the moment they’re acting as the good guys because the US is totally against any regulation and talk about global governance,” said Hall, who is director of the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton. “It’s all Maga. It’s all: we’re going to win at all costs
Bosses say AI boosts productivity – workers say they’re drowning in ‘workslop’
Ken, a copywriter for a large, Miami-based cybersecurity firm, used to enjoy his job. But then the “workslop” started piling up.Workslop is an unintended consequence of the AI boom. It’s what happens when employees use AI to quickly generate work that seems polished – at least superficially – but is in fact so flawed or inaccurate that it needs to be heavily corrected, cleaned upor even completely redone after it’s passed on to colleagues.For Ken, the problem started after his company’s CEO laid off several of his colleagues and mandated that remaining workers use AI chatbots, saying it would boost their productivity
Javokhir Sindarov earns world chess title shot with stunning Candidates win
Javokhir Sindarov will challenge for Gukesh Dommaraju’s world chess championship this fall after clinching the Candidates tournament with a game to spare on Tuesday afternoon in Cyprus.The 20-year-old Uzbek grandmaster closed out an emphatic victory in the 14-game double round-robin with a tame 58-move draw playing with the black pieces against Dutch star Anish Giri, moving to 9½ points and leaving the world No 9 two adrift with one round remaining.“After he exchanged queens [20 Qxa6] ..
Welcome to The Hotspot, our new newsletter on sport’s relationship with the climate crisis
We delve into the best stories on how sport is changing around the climate crisis, and what can be done to navigate a way forwardTo subscribe to The Hotspot, just visit this pageNelson Mandela said: “Sport can create hope where once there was only despair.” Too optimistic? In 2026, almost certainly. Sport is still a common language, uniting unlikely groups like an all-powerful Esperanto, but it is in trouble.The pitches we play on, rivers we swim, seas we surf, mountains we climb, parks we run in, air we breathe – all are being degraded by the burning of fossil fuels as the climate crisis turns the sporting landscape upside down.Which is why The Hotspot, the Guardian’s new fortnightly newsletter on sport and the climate crisis, is here
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