Brendon McCullum: Tactician Harry Brook a work in progress off field

“I do think sometimes people think Brooky is not that clever and I couldn’t disagree with that more. He wears his intelligence lightly and he has a very good tactical cricket brain.

Brook was fined £30,000 and given a final warning after being involved in an altercation with a bouncer outside a Wellington nightclub the night before England’s final ODI against New Zealand. Brook originally claimed that he had gone to the nightclub alone but it subsequently emerged team-mates Jacob Bethell and Josh Tongue had accompanied him. They were also fined by the ECB and the trio are being investigated by the Cricket Regulator for potentially bringing the game into disrepute and breaching the ECB’s code of conduct.

“He’s a work in progress off the field, which he is not alone with that, and it is our job to shepherd him through but on the field he is certainly excelling,” McCullum said. “I am really impressed with him — he’s a tough lad.

“He put his hand up, tried to protect his boys as well. Obviously we dealt with everything in the manner we thought was required internally, and he was disciplined and the boys were disciplined and there were stern words. But since then it’s been about trying to support these lads and he has been absolutely brilliant to own up to things, put his hand up to things and still cross the line into the arena and not lose his confidence or be distracted. It’s a rare skill.

“Cricket is such a unique game because it’s 12 months of the year, it’s not like any other game. You have to be up for it 12 months a year, year on year on year, and it can be challenging mentally for a lot of guys and cricket has a history of issues in that space. Our job as leaders is to look after these boys — yes, discipline and fines where mistakes have been made, but now it is about protecting them and trying to put space between them and those times.”

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