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You can find a telling video clip featuring the England coach and Rob Key. Recorded during 2016, it captures the two men exuding youthful vigour, joking during a session while talking about T20 batting.

The chemistry between them seems palpable. It’s almost like an intrusion. It embodies the essence of McCullum’s mindset: all about entering a clear head as the primary goal.

“My plan is to hit the ball in that direction, sometimes over there,” he states nonchalantly. When asked about his fast hands, his response is: “I’m not entirely sure.”

This is not surprise that his tutorial lacks complex technical content. The insight lies in seeing an incredibly talented player articulate a philosophy built on keeping things simple. He admits his red-ball approach was transferable due to the fact “in Test cricket I never really had a solid defence capable of sustain quality bowling.”

A Fundamental Issue: Is a Motivational Figure Run an Ashes Tour?

This raises an essential question: Would you entrust the ‘masterclasser’ with planning, overseeing, and detail-manage an entire Ashes tour? Furthermore, consider that this approach then fails because of slack planning? Should you then ask the same person to have another go, to adapt a methodology built on paring it back?

By now, the coach can seem akin to an inspirational guru where the simple mantra got applied to an entire complex organisation. His role as an effective inspirational figure is not in doubt. Yet this is not the same as he is equipped to run all the minute logistical planning.

Judgement Must Come

This is precisely why, the head coach has to be judged under standard measures of performance, irrespective of the final result in Sydney. There is an argument suggesting each side might benefit in the long run by a defeat this final Test.

Yet, this would be a mistake to become distracted by any a final win. Nothing has changed. The primary job for the leadership was to manage the preparations and handle the logistics. One cannot excuse poor preparation just due to the players were good enough to overcome it afterwards.

Maintaining perspective could be hard should England avoid defeat in Sydney. Plenty of side-shows are present. The host nation's response to losing in Melbourne was misleadingly exaggerated, including criticism of the pitch and lamentations on the decline of traditional values. This is all distractingly feelgood for English supporters.

Don’t Be Misled

• Don’t get distracted by the fact the fourth Test constituted a genuinely good win irrespective of the pitch furore.
• Do not be distracted with the imminent global white-ball tournament, a competition that seems to appear with relentless frequency.
• Do not be distracted of the fact changing the coach does not address the deep-rooted systemic issues of the domestic game.

In fact, the final point is key. The appointment of convincing amateurs for top jobs; acceptance of a casual approach, jobs for the boys, and spinning poor decisions: this is symptomatic of a huge amount that is flawed in cricket.

What Failure to Plan Really Means

This is why accountability must exist. What message is sent should it emerge you can get away with not having proper warm-up games, not employing a fielding coach, failing to schedule a day-night practice game for players who have never seen the conditions?

Add to this every other fine detail, including the strange treatment of Shoaib Bashir, ultimately dropped for Will Jacks. If such oversights are ignored, then that standards are meaningless.

Prior to Sydney, attempts to rewrite history has begun. Arguments are made it was acceptable to skip practice games because England has done so before and were victorious. Such reasoning conveniently ignores key differences, namely that past opponents lacked preparation, whereas the hosts were primed and ready. The fact that you passed one exam without studying does not mean you should never study.

The Captain’s Verdict and The Future

The primary case for retaining the current regime is that lessons can be learned from these mistakes. The notion that the coach might develop meticulous planning to his inspirationalism remains unproven. His entire method has been simplification. What would ‘Baz’ with data briefings actually look like?

The captain is now pivotal. His talk of ‘weak men’ felt like urgent effort to inject some substance into the baggy first principles. Stokes will provide to give a personal debrief. A clear, impartial account might easily see the coach dangling by a thread, and the director required to admit a lack of oversight.

The final Test offers a chance to win again. But it should not be allowed to obscure these facts. There is a need for accountability, for stakes, and for rigorous scrutiny on performance. This is Test cricket where standards must be upheld.