Bucket hats, nighthawks and all things golf. Some of England’s most incredible victories, achieved in stunning style. New Zealand at Trent Bridge, India at Edgbaston, Pakistan at Rawalpindi.

For a time, England was more than a cricket team. They were a feeling, a movement and a phenomenon. They occasionally blinked at McCullum’s next three years in charge, but nothing like that heady first year.

As for why the trip went off the rails, McCullum gave us a clue on his first day on the job.

“I don’t coach technically,” McCullum said at Lord’s in May 2022. “I understand the techniques, but for me it’s more about human management and trying to provide the right environment for the team to go out and be the best version of themselves.”

McCullum inherited an experienced group, players who had been crushed by a run of one win in 17 and stifled by Covid restrictions: Stokes, Anderson, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood.

The New Zealander freed them, giving them a freedom that they knew how to use.

When it came time to build a new England team (given the age profile, this was probably always under McCullum), his style was not suitable for molding a new generation.

Jamie Smith, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir and even Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope. His test runs under McCullum began strongly. When they needed more, he couldn’t provide it.

McCullum admitted to overestimating the younger players’ preparation for the hostility they faced on and off the field during an Ashes tour. The result was a 4-1 defeat so damaging that England cannot shake the stench.

At the end of that series, McCullum spoke in Sydney like a man who knew his time was up.

“I’m open to evolution and some nips and tucks, but without finally being able to steer the ship maybe there’s someone better,” he said.

He survived, along with Stokes and Key, although now with Bazball-lite: curfew, alcohol restrictions, a team chef and a beefed-up backroom staff. For a man who made no apologies for a “casual” environment, it didn’t feel very McCullum.