The England cricket team has hired former All Blacks mental skills coach Gilbert Enoka. He did some work with the England team at the start of the summer and will be with them for the next few days on a consultancy basis.Enoka has been brought in to toughen up an England squad amid a pivotal phase that includes a series against India followed by the all-important Ashes against Australia.Enoka, a friend of McCullum’s, has also worked with elite sides in several sports and nations, including a spell at Chelsea in 2023, and is famous for instigating a “no dickheads” policy while helping the All Blacks to two World Cup wins in 2011 and 2015.He also worked as a mental skills coach with the New Zealand cricket team from 1998–2004 and the national netball team from 1994–1997.
“A dickhead makes everything about them,” he famously said in 2017.“They are people who put themselves ahead of the team, people who think they’re entitled to things, expect the rules to be different for them, people operating deceitfully in the dark, or being unnecessarily loud about their work.
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“The management might not spot these counterproductive behaviours. The players and leaders themselves should call others out for their inflated egos. Often, teams put up with it because a player has so much talent. We look for early warning signs and wean the big egos out pretty quickly. Our motto is: ‘If you can’t change the people, change the people.’”England are leading the five-match series 2–1, and the fourth Test will be played at Old Trafford, starting July 23.
