Jos Buttler believes Brendon McCullum is “as sharp a coach as I’ve ever worked with” and that the use of the walkie-talkies to relay messages on to the field exemplifies that.
Empowering his players has been a hallmark of McCullum’s reign as England head coach, but that has led to accusations he was asleep at the wheel in the build-up to and during this winter’s 4-1 Ashes loss.
Since then, the ex-New Zealand captain has seemed more proactive, with the use of handheld transceivers to send out instructions or advice to his players, with substitute fielders as intermediaries.
Buttler praised the initiative, insisting coaches in other sports have long since adopted such measures to attempt to influence results, while he has seen the practice employed at the Indian Premier League.
“Baz can sit with his feet up and sunglasses on and look very relaxed, but he’s as sharp a coach as I’ve ever worked with – he doesn’t miss a beat,” the former England captain said.
“He was a really successful captain, he’s got lots of great messages and knowledge to pass on to all the players. His relationship with Harry Brook has been a great one for this team; they’re a really close pair, they see the game in a similar way and also challenge each other.
“More so for cricket in general, for coaches to be getting involved in real time in cricket, I’ve played in the IPL with Gujarat (Titans), where Ashish Nehra was very active on the boundary rope.
“It seems like cricket is the sport where we’re still a bit behind in that area. You look at other sports, like rugby where they run messages on. Maybe that will come more and more into cricket.”
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