Aaron Finch calls English cricket a ‘circus’ after Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum exits and says Australians are ‘laughing’ | Cricket news
Former Australia batsman Aaron Finch has likened the recent coaching and captaincy turmoil to a ‘circus’ and says many Australians have been watching from afar and ‘giggling’ at their old rivals.
Ben Stokes famously announced his retirement from international cricket during his side’s final Test series defeat to New Zealand in June, and head coach Brendon McCullum was later sacked as head coach of the red-ball team.
So the Test team is set for major changes amid a slump in form, having lost seven of their last nine matches.
Talking to Sky Sports Cricket PodcastFinch, who has captained Australia in both white-ball formats, questioned England’s stubbornness on their recent tour Down Under, as well as some of the decisions made by England’s management.
“You don’t want to see the players feel like they’re getting fired or the coaches getting fired,” Finch said Sky Sports Cricket’s Michael Atherton. “But the way everything is scattered, it has become like a circus.
“When you look back at the build-up to the Ashes, I thought, not having a warm-up game for whatever reason. Everyone has an opinion as to why they couldn’t have it at the WACA, which is the closest you can get to Perth Stadium.
“And it almost shuts everyone out saying: ‘No, we know better. We know what we’re doing. We’re here to win’.
“And to break it up like that, to see where it goes in the New Zealand series, where New Zealand played classic Test Cricket and found a way to win.
“They go on and win the series, which is difficult to finish at home. Every team says that winning at home is a big challenge.”
The departure of McCullum and Stokes will end the era of ‘Bazball’, which has seen England display the type of cricket that has raised the eyebrows of others.
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Finch added that it is never fun to see players and coaches lose their jobs
“I think if you look at it as a whole, you say there were a few decisions that, whether it’s the style of play, the choice of the gun, the decisions behind the scenes, as an Australian, you always step back and giggle a little bit because at different times we’ve been in that situation. But you can understand it,” added Finch.
Atherton also asked Finch if any of his Australian team had ever been under a curfew.
“Never,” he replied. “If there was that, it would be played in black and white.
“It’s hard to know exactly what’s going on unless you’re inside those four walls.
“So you can guess all you want, but from the outside, it looks like chaos. So they’re in this difficult position now when they’re trying to find a Test coach.”
