Former Australia batter Aaron Finch has described English cricket as a circus following the departures of captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum.
Stokes announced his retirement from both the England men’s Test captaincy and international cricket as a whole during the final Test match of the series against New Zealand in June.
Not long after, head coach McCullum left the England side as well, apologising for the poor results in the Test series.
The England Test team have lost seven of their last nine matches, signalling that some big changes are needed.
Finch, who has captained Australia in the past, has now shared his criticism over England’s situation.
Circus
Finch was left far from impressed by the way England have been handling things.
Speaking on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast, Finch said: “You never want to see players feel like they’re being forced out or coaches be sacked.
“But the way that it’s all panned out, it has been a little bit like a circus.
“When you look back to the preparation of the Ashes, everyone’s got their opinion on why they weren’t able to have [a warm-up game] at the WACA, which is the closest replication you can have to Perth Stadium.
“And almost shutting everybody out saying: ‘No, we know best. We know what we’re doing. We’re here to win.’
“And then for it to fall apart like that, to see where it goes in the New Zealand series, where New Zealand played traditional hard Test cricket and found a way to grind out a win.
“They go on and win a series, which is hard to do away from home. Every team says that winning away from home is their biggest challenge.”
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Laughable
The tactics of England’s Test team are something that Finch says could make an Australian sit back and laugh.
He stated: “I think that, when you look at it as a whole, you say there’s been a few decisions that – whether it be style of play, shot selection, decisions behind the scenes – as an Australian, you sit back and giggle a little bit.
“Because at different times we’ve been in that position as well.
“But you can understand it.”
Curfew
One talking point from England’s decisions is a midnight curfew ordered for players on every day of a series at home or on tour.
This policy came about after an incident involving Stokes and Gus Atkinson outside a nightclub.
When asked if any of his Australia sides had been put under a curfew, Finch said: “Never.
“If there was, that would have been played out in black and white.
“It’s hard to know exactly what is going on without being inside those four walls.
“So you can speculate all you want, but from the outside, it has looked like a bit of a mess.
“So they’re in this tricky situation now where they’re trying to obviously find a Test coach.”
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