Why Stephen Fleming is a better fit for England than Justin Langer

Former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming was appointed as England’s new Test coach on Wednesday, replacing compatriot and good mate, Brendon McCullum, who was sacked in early July. The 53-year-old had stepped down from the same role with Chennai Super Kings just days before, bringing to an end an 18-year association with the Indian Premier League. Now, as he prepares for his latest, and perhaps greatest, challenge with England, what can we expect? Fleming is hugely admired globally – although one retired Black Cap passed up the opportunity to speak about his ex-colleague, quipping that he had “no idea why the ECB were so obsessed” with this particular generation of Kiwis. Ask those who have played alongside him, or worked under him, though, and the response is unequivocal – Fleming is the real deal, even though he hasn’t coached in first-class cricket since calling time on his red-ball career following a three-year spell with Nottinghamshire that ended in 2007. Calm, methodical and composed Fleming is New Zealand’s longest-serving and most successful Test captain (Photo: Getty) Frenetic is probably an apt word to describe England in recent years, with an attack at all costs providing plenty of entertainment but also hair-tearing frustration. Former England bowler Angus Fraser saw the ice-cool Fleming up close during a season with Middlesex in 2001. The New Zealander made a big impression with the bat, but an equally sizeable one with his brain. “I was injured so he captained the side for a County Championship game against Gloucestershire,” Fraser tells The i Paper. “We’d bowled them out and needed, I think around 300, I can’t remember exactly. “We came off the field and he just sat in the corner for two or three minutes during the 10-minute break, then set it up. ‘Right, boom, this is where I want to be after 10 overs, this is where I want to be after 20, this is where I want to be after 40.’ “He almost just broke down what we were trying to do, and we chased the runs down very, very well. He brought a lot of clarity and structure to a situation and it’s something he’s very, very good at.” All of which suggests that Fleming will be judging players by the way they think about the game as well as the runs they score or the wickets they take. As good a communicator as you’ll find The New Zealander led Nottinghamshire to the County Championship title in 2005 (Photo: Getty) When Fleming arrived at Trent Bridge in the summer of 2005, Nottinghamshire hadn’t won the title since 1987. The impact he made as skipper as that drought ended is something that Paul Franks, former all-rounder and now member of Notts’ coaching staff, recalls vividly. “He empowered his players,” Franks says. “He knew what he wanted, but he empowered people, built relationships quickly that were meaningful, and was interested in how to get the best out of people and what that needed to look like. “We built our tactics around that for the whole season. “He was obviously a very fine player in his own right too, which gave him the kudos he needed in the changing room. “What he gave the players was an underlying confidence, a belief that he believed in you and would back you. But he’d also hold you to account in terms of performance. “I can probably count on one hand how many times I saw him lose it. But he certainly had an edge to him when he needed it.” A lack of accountability is an accusation that has been levelled against England in recent years. The days of “that’s just the way we play” after holing out at deep mid-wicket might be over. ‘If you had a scale with Langer and McCullum at either end…’ England’s laissez-faire attitude under Brendon McCullum could be a thing of the past (Photo: Getty) McCullum injected the fun back into watching England, there is absolutely no doubt about that. But the lack of discipline witnessed, particularly on recent tours to New Zealand and Australia, has been a constant stick to beat England with. Justin Langer, another player Fraser knows well, was mooted as a potential replacement and held up as the perfect man to instill discipline into this side. Plenty, though, were worried he might prove too intense. “You’d struggle to find two more people at different ends of the spectrum than McCullum and [Langer], in the way they’ve gone about things,” Fraser says. “Both are incredibly hard-working at their game, but McCullum’s far more relaxed, one’s slightly more intense, I’d say. “Fleming is somewhere in the middle really. He’s not in-your-face, he gives you space, but he’s a very good communicator. As a coach I’d imagine he sits down, talks well and develops good conversations with the people he’s working with.” All of which means England’s approach is going to massively change, although gung-ho might be replaced by something slightly more measured. “If the best players you’ve got are naturally more positive players, then you pick them,” Fraser says. “I suppose previously they’d gone to an extreme, maybe ignoring players who were getting lots of runs in a different manner in county cricket in favour of someone more incredibly positive. “Harry Brook is going to be around, Jacob Bethell is going to carry on playing as he is. But I think it probably does create opportunities for some players who previously wouldn’t have ticked all the boxes Stokes and McCullum were looking for.” Read more Chris Stocks: All the signs Ben Stokes will make a fairytale Ashes return Ollie Robinson interview: Bazball was so fun – but England need to win games That will be music to the ears of Dominic Sibley cheerleaders, but Fraser isn’t convinced there will be a wholesale change of personnel. “We’re not going to go back to the days of Geoffrey Boycott and Chris Tavare,” he laughs. That is probably something fans can all get behind.