“I can’t believe it,” Stuart Broad says on a cold and rainy evening in London as, having stressed his contentment in retirement, he turns to the heat and disappointment in India. England’s defence of their 50-over World Cup has slumped from embarrassment to incomprehension. England have lost six out of seven matches and are bottom of the tournament table.
In the many highs of his career, Broad has had his share of lows with England. As he stresses in his new autobiography, his own World Cup nadir came in 2007 when, aged 21, he was hit for six sixes in an over by India’s Yuvraj Singh. “It was really important and it sped up my learning,” Broad says. “Lots of people would have crumbled then but I went on and took [604] Test wickets. So it really hardened me.”
For this England one-day team, however, it feels like the end. “I’ve chatted to most of the guys over there and they’re struggling to put their finger on why everyone’s lost form at the same time,” he says. “They’ve not become a bad team overnight. They beat New Zealand before going out to India. The pitches haven’t played badly. From watching on TV, it’s one of those tough periods where it feels like every time we bat, the ball moves around. But every time we bowl, it’s not moving. I can’t put my finger on what’s happened.
“But having gone out of the World Cup so early, I think there will be a natural progression where Matthew Mott and Jos Buttler really put their stamp on the side. It will almost be the natural complete break-up of Eoin Morgan’s team.”
Broad has felt no sadness that his own time with England, which had narrowed to a final glorious burst with the Test team, is over. “There hasn’t been yet and I’m in that fortunate position that lots of my mates have retired and so I’ve spoken to them – Eoin, Graeme Swann, Matt Prior and Michael Lumb and Chris Read from my Nottinghamshire days.
“I know at some stage the sadness is coming whether it’s when England walk out in India [to begin a five-Test series in late January] or when Notts start pre-season in March. At some stage I’ll be like: ‘Goodness me, I don’t do that any more.’
“But I said this to Jimmy [Anderson] the other day. I saw an Instagram picture of him bowling at the indoor nets and I watched it with almost glee. I was like: ‘I don’t have to do that. I don’t have to get my body hardened through the winter.’ So it will probably be when England walk out at Trent Bridge next summer and I’ll go: ‘Wow, I’m not doing it any more.’ It will be difficult then.
“But I got emotional when I saw a video posted from the crowd after I took the final wicket [against Australia at the Oval to square the Ashes 2-2 in July]. To see them celebrating England win but also being happy for me felt special. It was the same on that final day when I saw people in the crowd with headbands and thought: ‘Wow, that’s really cool.’”
Broad’s last game was as magical as it was expertly stage-managed by one of English cricket’s great showmen. Apart from hitting the final ball he faced in Test cricket for six, Broad announced his imminent retirement at the end of day three. It would not have been Broad had he not won the match for England in his final overs.
He took the last two wickets – with the match-winning dismissal coming when he induced Alex Carey to nick an in-swinger to Jonny Bairstow. Bedlam ensued because Carey had run out Bairstow in controversial fashion in the second Test at Lord’s and Broad had played an eye-catching role in the pantomime.
Bairstow, thinking that the end of an over had been signalled, wandered out of his crease only to be horrified by Carey, the Australian wicketkeeper, throwing the ball against his stumps. “I’d love to chat to the Aussies,” Broad says. “For all the TV shows and podcasts, the players have never sat down together and gone: ‘What were you thinking? Why did you do that?’
“I hope there’s mutual respect between myself and the Aussies. I said certain things to [Australia’s captain] Pat Cummins in the heat of battle which I didn’t mean. I like Pat a lot but my gut feeling is that when he writes a book after he finishes playing, he’ll probably think that Lord’s incident was a mistake.
“All the Aussies are still pulling the line that it was the right thing to do. I’m not saying it was the wrong thing to do because in the rules of the game maybe it was out. But it just didn’t feel great as Jonny wasn’t trying to take advantage.”
Was Broad surprised Australia did not try to avoid such controversy after their image had been so tarnished by the ball-tampering scandal in 2018? “That irked my frustration. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve played cricket for a long time and I’m still not 100% sure what ‘the spirit of cricket’ means. Pat quite rightly said: ‘You’re hardly a custodian of the spirit of cricket.’ I felt like saying: ‘You’re dead right. But that doesn’t mean you made the right decision.’ I thought it was a good opportunity for Australian cricket to make a statement that it had moved forward.
“Pat’s a great guy who does a lot for the environment and leads really well. One thing I’ve seen in leaders who have been really successful – Morgan, [Ben] Stokes – is that they’re very authentic. I don’t think that decision was authentic to Pat.”
Batting soon after Bairstow’s dismissal, Broad deliberately taunted the Aussies as a way of unsettling them. “The first 10 minutes was red mist, I’m embarrassed to say. At 37 I should know better. But once I gathered my emotions I needed that edge to stay with Stokesy with the bat and to ruffle their feathers. But I sat at home with Mollie [his wife] that night going: ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I did that.’
“I saw that clip of me going ‘In!’ [as he kept using his bat to exaggerate the fact he had returned to the crease]. I seemed to carry on like that for hours. It was so petulant, but it was my frustration and it ignited the series.”
As captured in his book, the 14 months Broad played under Stokes and Brendon McCullum were the happiest of his career. He is full of praise for McCullum and the way in which he diminishes any fear of failure and encourages feelings of enjoyment and freedom. “It’s deeper than you think,” Broad says of McCullum’s philosophy. “He’s been incredibly disciplined with his language. At no stage has he ever been negative or critical. Rather than being like a head coach, he is more of a psychologist.
“He would say to Zak Crawley: ‘I don’t want you to average 40 by getting 40 every game. I prefer you to go nought, nought, nought, 70. Win me that game.’ Like Zak did at Old Trafford – bang, [189 – although England’s victory push was ruined by rain]. So he really drives home the positive messages. I watched him before the Old Trafford Test. Jonny was having a tough time and so Baz played golf with him, sat next to him at dinner, threw him underarms at training. He spent a lot of time reinforcing Jonny’s strengths. And Jonny goes out and gets 99 [not out]. It’s quite impressive.
“Same with Stokesy. He was so positive and consistent on wicket-taking. He didn’t care about us going for runs. Every new spell he would ask: ‘How are you going to take these wickets?’ It was never: ‘We need a quiet period. The bowling mindset was all about speeding the game up and how do we take wickets?”
Stokes and McCullum also changed the mentality off the field. “Ben’s been a great advocate of being able to speak about mental health. This is Ben Stokes, hard as nails, superstar, a bit rough and ready, powerful. If Ben Stokes can struggle, anyone can. Maybe there is part of his leadership that’s so free because he knows the depths [of depression] he’s been to and losing a game of cricket is nothing compared to that.
“I don’t know Baz’s history but I can say it now without sounding like I’m sucking up to him. He’s honestly one of the best guys on the planet and he’s brought a lot of positivity and joy to English cricket.”
McCullum hates the expression ‘Bazball’ but, as Broad says with a grin, “It’s made the dictionary. The Aussies spent the last six months denying the fact it exists. Every interview they say: ‘Bazball is not a thing.’ But I will win that argument 100 times out of 100. I just show them the economy rates of bowling figures.”
Can England sustain Bazball? “I think it’s very sustainable. Even after Baz and Stokesy have moved on, young players like Zak, Ollie Pope, Harry Brook and Josh Tongue will continue that style, because it’s so free and enjoyable and entertaining.
“We were 2-0 down in the Ashes and people in the street were saying: ‘Keep going in the series, loving it.’ When I’ve been 2-0 down before, people were like [Broad uses a frustrated voice]: ‘Come on.’ But they didn’t mention the result. They were saying how entertaining it was and ultimately that’s the ethos we want. As new players and coaches come through they want to know what it feels like to play cricket with such pleasure.”
Anderson, Broad’s great friend and opening bowling partner, struggled in the Ashes. He is 41 but Anderson is determined to plough on. “I don’t envisage he’ll play all the Test matches in India,” Broad says. “He’s a very good bowler in India and his reverse swings work really well. But he’ll be targeting next summer as the time to strike against Sri Lanka and the West Indies. Jimmy’s had brilliant success against both of them and I expect England to win every single Test.
“I don’t know whether Jimmy plays every game because we need to give experience to players like Tongue and Matthew Potts. Jimmy will be a bowling guru to them while striking when he can.
“He’s still got an Everest of 700 Test wickets [Anderson is on 690]. Everyone needs some sort of Everest to inspire them. Mine had gone. I’d achieved 600 Test wickets, been part of an amazing Ashes and I asked myself: ‘What’s my next Everest?’ I had nothing to write down.”
Broad pauses. “I don’t like the word ‘retirement’. It doesn’t sit comfortably with me. But my career’s not been finished at 27 by injury. I’m 37 and I finished in the most incredible way. I don’t even know what the next step up is from fairytale but that’s how it felt. I feel so lucky to have had that and I feel strong about the direction I’m going in. I will have times where it hits me deeply. But that’s normal and I feel prepared for the next chapter.”
Broadly Speaking by Stuart Broad is available now (Hodder & Stoughton)
