At the end of a chaotic couple of months, there was one last piece of Brendon McCullum understatement to part with as the curtain came down. “It’s been eventful,” England’s white-ball coach remarked of a strange summer that may be remembered more for the wrong reasons than the right ones.
But McCullum’s next comment required slightly more scrutiny. “I genuinely feel right now, at the end of the summer, English cricket is certainly in a really good place,” he opined, obviously with a vested interest as an individual who began the summer as their men’s all-format supremo and closed it adjusting to life working again alongside good chum Stephen Fleming. Could it really be said that out of the tumult that characterised so much of the cricketing year, England have emerged better and brighter than before? Certainly, that argument can be made.
