What are they doing?

The stump mic caught the question everyone in English cricket is asking. Does anyone in English cricket actually know what they are doing?

“What are they doing?”

It was the line of the Test match.

Picked up by the stump microphone as England’s batting unravelled at Trent Bridge, the Kiwis summed up what a lot of us are thinking?

“What are they doing?”

It was aimed at the batters in front of him.

But by the end of what was an extraordinary, shocking and chaotic day, it felt like the question that summed up English cricket from top to bottom.

Because, seriously, what are they doing?

How has the team that gave us the intoxicating early days of Bazball ended up looking so utterly directionless? And how has the ECB allowed it to drift to this point?

The collapse itself was extraordinary enough. England didn’t just lose wickets; they lost their heads. It wasn’t fearless cricket. It wasn’t positive cricket. It was brainless egotistical cricket - adding fuel to the accusations that this isn’t a serious cricket team

When Bazball first burst onto the scene it was exhilarating. It rescued Test cricket from the suffocating caution that had engulfed England for years. Suddenly players looked liberated. Grounds were full. Chases that once seemed impossible became believable. Even opposition teams admitted they enjoyed watching England play.

For a while, it was impossible not to be swept along by it.

But philosophies don’t win forever. At some stage they have to evolve.

Instead, England seem to have become trapped by their own mythology. By stubbornness, by an insistence on “cutting out the outside noise” so much so they’ve got trapped in a bubble.

The message that was originally about freedom has, ironically, started to look restrictive. Every situation appears to demand the same response. Every problem is met with the same solution. And while plenty of criticism will land on the players, this feels much bigger than one bad session or one poor Test match.

This is about leadership. This is about governance. This is about making the tough decisions. This is about whether anyone at the ECB has been prepared to challenge the direction of travel over the past couple of years.

Because it often feels as though everyone fell in love with Bazball as a brand - addicted the feeling that it gave during the first two years. Meanwhile, the harder questions quietly disappeared. For an organisation responsible for English cricket as a whole, the ECB appears to have spent far too long admiring the shop window instead of checking what was happening in the stockroom.

Then there is Ben Stokes. I don’t think we’ve heard anything like the full story behind his retirement. I wrote a long piece in the Times on the day of his announcement (which you should read if you can - I put a lot of work into it). This was not just as simple as a man who had run his race. The telling phrase to me was when he said he’d really enjoyed playing for Durham but couldn’t find that enjoyment back with England. That says plenty about what has happened behind the scenes. Perhaps there will be a tell all book, perhaps a Netflix documentary, perhaps he’ll make a come back (and I really wouldn’t bet against it)

For now though, the ECB senior leaders have got to make some tough calls. It’s over. The dream is over.

Jacquie Kennedy Onassis used to refer to the Camelot days - the mythologised era of JFK’s presidency - a romanticised concept of youthful idealism, optimism and glamour. Camelot ended, she said, when JFK was assassinated.

The Camelot days of Bazball are over - they ended with the assassination of England in Australia. It was done.

Now the only decisions to be made are what is next….

Which inevitably brings us to Rob Key and Brendon McCullum.

Can they survive this? Should they? If you listen to the public mood, probably not.

I’ve yet to hear many England supporters arguing that this Test team is genuinely moving forwards under the current management.

The names already being mentioned are revealing. Justin Langer. Andy Flower.

Coaches with very different personalities but one thing in common: structure, accountability and an insistence on high standards - they know that vibes alone ain’t cutting it.

Would changing the coach alone fix English cricket? No.

Because replacing one man without addressing the wider system is simply changing the face at the front of the room.

The underlying problems remain.

The ECB’s job isn’t to sell a movement or philosophy - It’s to build a sustainable England team capable of winning consistently over many years and a serious, elite, high performing national team.

At the moment, that feels a long way off.

Perhaps that’s why those five words from Trent Bridge landed so powerfully.

“What are they doing?”

They weren’t scripted.

They weren’t designed to go viral.

They were simply the instinctive reaction of professional cricketers watching England self-destruct.

The uncomfortable reality is that plenty of England supporters were asking exactly the same question.

And until somebody at the very top of English cricket starts answering it honestly—not with word salad statements or three word slogans but making hard decisions - they already don’t have much love from the public, now is not the time to make things harder by doing nothing