The passion of English cricket Brendon McCullumThe Test coach’s wit has ended with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) sacking him on Sunday after four years in the job. ECB, however, retained his services for the white ball teams.Sunday’s development is the culmination of a tumultuous eight months he has seen Ben Stokes hung up his boots in austere circumstances a fortnight ago, and one that saw England suffer Ashes humiliation in Australia and a 1-2 defeat to New Zealand at home last month. McCullum’s dismissal, therefore, officially brings down the curtains on ‘Bazball’ – a manic brand of ultra-aggressive Test cricket ushered in by McCullum and Stokes in 2022.“Of course, I’m gutted not to be continuing, but I respect the decision. My focus now is to give everything I’ve got to the White Ball teams and help England continue to progress,” McCullum said in a statement released by ECB. ECB CEO Richard Gould has said this is the right time to make a change as they target an Ashes win at home next summer.England cricket’s fascination with McCullum can be traced back to 2015 when Eoin Morgan resurrected the white-ball team’s performances, culminating in the 2019 World Cup triumph, inspired by McCullum’s enterprising leadership that led New Zealand to the 2015 ODI World Cup final.Bazball dared the cricket community at large, but its biggest success was probably winning over English cricket conservatives with cutting-edge action thrillers on the conventional form of Test cricket. Not only did he pull England’s Test cricket out of a hole under the leadership of Joe Root, he freed Root the batsman himself. Batting with an attempt to score at almost 4.5-5 runs per over and chasing scores of more than 350 in the last innings of a Test match, McCullum has worked on a principle of blurring the lines between all three formats of the game.In his first year, extravagant victories over New Zealand and India at home followed by drubbing Pakistan on their almost concrete pitches, upset the world order. From proud standard bearers, the England team went from being bullish and then adamant about the brand of cricket they had started playing. Players often refer to how they are the mercenaries of Test cricket. The resounding results, however, eluded him. In these four years, England failed to win against Australia and India as well as falling out of contention for the World Test Championship title.Cracks in his game began to appear last year when an inexperienced Indian team under new captain Shubman Gill repeatedly challenged his “we will chase for anything” approach in a series that ended with a 2-2 scoreline.It was a brand of cricket that flirted with the boom-orburst model. He captivated the cricketing world when he arrived, but consistency was still rare. During the tour of India last year, Root and Stokes showed that they deviate from this with a narrower approach depending on the match situation. Ashes was an implosion and now it is likely to be buried.“Bazball” declared to the world that there is another way to play Test Cricket. If you understand that it was not the only way.