‘It may not be popular’: England stand by McCullum and Key despite Ashes debacle
Brendon McCullum and Rob Key have been backed to lead England’s response to the grisly winter Ashes defeat in Australia, with Richard Gould, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, insisting that while it may not be a popular decision it is the right one.At Lord’s on Monday, and with Key, the managing director of cricket, sitting next to him, Gould stressed that lessons have been learned from the 4-1 defeat and that the head coach in particular is willing to “adapt” and “evolve” his style.Even with an appetite for change among the public, the status quo holds, as revealed exclusively by the Guardian this month.Later in the day the Test captain, Ben Stokes, endorsed the ECB’s decision in an expletive-filled open letter to supporters on Instagram.Gould said: “We do keep a very close eye on all of our supporters.
But neither are we going to select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign.We’re going to do it based on good judgment and objective views.“My old man was a football manager [the former Wimbledon and Wales coach Bobby Gould] and sacking was part of the job.But it didn’t necessarily do the right thing.Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do.
That’s not the route we’re going to take.“I’ve seen the driving ambition and determination we’re lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes.It may not be the popular route, it may not be the easiest route, but I think it’s the right route.”While a two-month internal review into the Ashes gives the impression of the ECB marking its own homework, Gould, without naming names, said he had spoken to outsiders.The review will not be published, although two slides with bullet points were presented to the media.
One was essentially a list of names in the selection process, the other being areas of particular focus.These included better use of the performance system, better long‑term planning and improved culture and environment – ie, greater professionalism in the senior men’s set-up.The latter became an acute talking point over the winter, including the mid-Ashes break in Noosa that invited headlines about drinking.It then came to a head when it was revealed that Harry Brook had been disciplined for a drunken altercation with a nightclub bouncer in New Zealand the evening before he was due to captain England in a one‑day international.Gould described it as “significantly unprofessional”, while Key said that while he considered sacking Brook as white-ball captain, his previous clean slate in this regard – plus the decision to put England ahead of playing in the Indian Premier League – called for a second chance.
The upshot during the second half of the winter was the introduction of a midnight curfew, something Gould said simply formalised McCullum’s belief that nothing good ever comes from being out late.“We want to give people the freedom to make their own decisions, but sometimes we also need to provide them with more strict parameters.”In terms of performance, Key put plenty of stock in the recent appointment of Troy Cooley, who worked with quick bowlers in the 2005 Ashes‑winning side and returns to oversee the fast-bowling landscape more broadly.There was also an acceptance that communication with the counties needs to improve, with various directors of cricket invited to a meeting this week.“You just want to lift English cricket up as much as you can in all departments,” Key said.
As regards the Test team, there was an admission from Key that McCullum and Stokes had different outlooks at times – McCullum more aggressive, Stokes more conservative – but this was healthy.“There’s been no big argument, no big bust-up,” he said.“Everyone’s always trying, when you’re under pressure, especially against a very good side, to be able to make decisions and help people perform under the toughest conditions.“What we’ve really all agreed on now is that we don’t want a massive change of style.We don’t want a change of philosophy so you’re asking Brendon McCullum to be someone completely different.
Because as a leader, if you’re not authentic you’re done.”In his open letter to supporters, Stokes wrote: “Baz, Rob and myself have the passion and desire to take this team forward.We are going to give you everything we have.We know we made mistakes along the way and we have learnt from those mistakes.You learn more from failure than success.
“I have learnt a lot about myself but the most important thing that I want the fans to know is that … I F*****G love cricket, I F*****G love this team, I F*****G love being England captain and I have got so much more to give to this role and I’m so happy that I get to do it with Baz and Rob.”
Let them eat 1,600 cakes: inside Australia’s first Cake Picnic
Baker Alice Bennett, also known as Miss Trixie Drinks Tea, is the self-proclaimed queen of cakes in Melbourne. She assumes her cheeky email signature is why she was tapped as an assistant judge at Australia’s inaugural Cake Picnic. When the global phenomenon descended on Kings Domain in Melbourne last Saturday, 1,600 cakes were artfully presented and then summarily devoured as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival (MFWF).Created in San Francisco in 2024 by amateur baking enthusiast Elisa Sunga, the first Cake Picnic was conceived as a way for the Californian to eat more cake than she could be bothered to bake. Her event has now toured nine cities, and will be visiting Sydney on Saturday 28 March
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I love pasta sauces that come together while the pasta is cooking. This one is lovely and wholesome, great for when the weather starts to warm up a little, and one of those that you can make pretty much year-round. The polenta chips, meanwhile, came about when I wanted to bulk up a plate of beans without the mess (and the pan of hot oil) that comes with making chips. The polenta can be made and set ahead, either during the day or the night before, or it will sit happily in the fridge for a couple of days.Sub in other green veg, such as shredded cavolo nero or even sliced courgettes
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This year’s Easter baskets may be under-egged, as boxes of the festive chocolate treats become smaller and more expensive. An annual price comparison by Australia’s consumer watchdog has found that the cost of “pretty much all chocolate products” in the Easter egg category has gone up, said Choice journalist Liam Kennedy. But while most products have stayed the same size, some have been hit by shrinkflation as well.Cadbury are “definitely our main culprit”, Kennedy said. In 2025, Choice found that the brand’s largest pack of hollow Easter eggs reduced from 408g to 374g, while increasing in price from $12
Welcome to the United States of Mancunia
A new wave of hyper-regional hoagies, subs and pizzas are taking over Manchester’s food scene. But are they really as American as apple pie?It’s just after midday, on a chilly, wind-whipped Friday in central Manchester, and an ever-growing crowd of people in puffer jackets is spilling out from a Chinatown service alley. A few yards away, there’s another huddle of bundled-up figures, dipping into capacious paper bags to set up an improvised picnic on the junction boxes outside a corner pub. Fistfuls of crinkle-cut chips are snaffled, cans of pop are sipped, and, despite the pervading scent of bin juice and fried chicken, enormous, truncheon-sized sandwiches are unwrapped and messily dispatched.It looks a little like a staged re-enactment of Covid-era dining practices
How to make the perfect cheese khachapuri – recipe | Felicity Cloake's How to make the perfect …
The first time I encountered what Tiko Tuskadze describes as “perhaps the most iconic of all Georgian dishes” was in her London restaurant, Little Georgia, back in the days when it was a tiny space on Broadway Market. If “traditional cheesebread … baked to order” sounded good on the menu, the reality of khachapuri was even better: a golden round of fluffy, buttery bread spilling forth frills of hot, salty dairy on to the plate (this is the kind of thing that passes for fast food in Georgia, according to Silvena Rowe, which makes me feel as if we’ve been slightly short-changed.)Tuskadze goes on to explain in her book Supra that there are “as many variations … as there are families in Georgia” – the boat-shaped, open adjaruili that Polina Chesnakova notes has “taken the internet by storm”, the Ossetian mashed potato variety and the Gurian take with hard-boiled eggs and a “supremely fluffy, slightly oniony, soufflé-like cheese filling”, which inspires Caroline Eden to share with readers of her book Green Mountains the glorious Georgian word shemomechama, “which loosely translates as, ‘I accidentally ate the whole thing’”. Here, however, I’m going to concentrate on what Chesnakova says is “by far the one most commonly consumed in Georgia itself”, and also the one that reminds Tuskadze most of home, namely imeruli khachapuri, originally from the west-central region of Imereti, which is “essentially a flat bread stuffed with buttery imeruli cheese curds and cooked on the stovetop”. Need I say more?After noting that the shape and filling varies according to region, Darra Goldstein writes in her book The Georgian Feast that, similarly, “the dough can be yeasty with a thick crust, many-layered and flaky, or tender and cake-like”, but “at home, khachapuri is more often made without yeast, with baking soda (a European import) or yoghurt used to tenderise the dough”
Cooking with Angela Hartnett: ‘I love food, but I don’t need to talk about it 24/7’
Angela Hartnett’s home kitchen isn’t a place you could recreate, however much Le Creuset you bought. A basement in east London, it has the relaxed timelessness of a villa in a Sally Rooney novel, but the embedded knowledge of a Michelin-starred chef who’s been cooking since she worked in her family’s chippy 40 and a bit years ago (she’s now 57) – every utensil exactly where your hand would be looking for it, everything mysteriously the right size.Today she’s making a poached chicken with spring vegetables. It sounds simple, and it’s maybe the fundamental paradox of food that the simpler a dish – the fewer the ingredients, the less fussing about – the easier it is to screw up. Poached chicken can come out the colour of over-washed underpants, although, to be fair, still taste delicious
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