Stephen Fleming Embraces England’s Ashes Challenge: ‘We Want to Beat the Aussies’

Stephen Fleming walked into his first media briefing as England’s new Test coach and did not try to cool the temperature around the Ashes. He turned it up.

Asked if England’s fixation on Australia had gone too far, he didn’t flinch.

“No, because I have an obsession with it as well,” he told BBC Sport. “New Zealand has an obsession with it, we love it. We want to beat the Aussies.”

For a man who never beat Australia in 14 Tests as New Zealand captain, the Ashes have always been a distant, glittering prize. Now he has the keys to a team that treats the urn like a national heirloom, and a series in the UK next summer that will define his early reign.

England have not won an Ashes series since 2015. The scars of last winter’s 4-1 hammering in Australia are still raw. Fleming, the self-described “little cousin” from across the Tasman, knows exactly what that rivalry feels like.

“We’re heavily linked to England performances,” he said. “We have a deep desire to beat Australia in everything, as the little cousin. We are linked, and I’m incredibly excited about being part of it.

“You don’t think you’re ever going to get that opportunity. To have that opportunity and be part of it, I can’t wait.”

He talked about vision, too. Not slogans, not hashtags.

“I want to be my best self and have a team that represents itself in the best possible way. I’ve got a vision of that and it’s aspirational. It will be brilliant.”

From Bazball to something sharper

Fleming steps into a dressing room still echoing with Brendon McCullum’s noise. His former New Zealand team-mate and close friend was sacked as Test coach earlier this summer but remains in charge of the white-ball side, leaving England with a split leadership model that has previously looked awkward.

McCullum’s tenure lit up Test cricket, but the end was grim. England won only two of his final 10 Tests, including that brutal tour of Australia. The criticism was consistent: thrilling, yes, but too often reckless; not enough adaptability, not enough detail.

Fleming knows McCullum as well as anyone. They are business partners. They speak the same cricketing language, but with a different accent.

“I’ll bet on the favourite and he’ll bet on the longest odds possible,” Fleming said, half-joking, wholly accurate.

Those long-odds bets defined Bazball. England chased impossible targets, set outrageous fields, lived on the edge. Fleming sounds like a man who will still take a risk, but only when the numbers stack up.

On the question of “brand” cricket, he was clear.

“I don’t think so,” he said when asked if a Test team should have a defined style. “The greatest thing for a team to do is to be able to play conditions and situations.

“I’d love people to say we are well-planned, there’s a discipline and a really strong basic structure to what we’re doing, but there’s also a bit of flair.”

That word – discipline – has not always sat easily with this England side.

Standards, late nights and Brydon Carse

The final months of McCullum’s reign were overshadowed by late-night drinking stories. The change of coach did not immediately make those disappear.

On Friday, Derbyshire Police confirmed they had closed an investigation into England seamer Brydon Carse following allegations of an assault last month. No police action will follow, but Carse now faces an investigation from the Cricket Regulator and has not featured in any England squad since the incident.

Fleming did not name him, but the message was unmistakable.

“There are standards,” he said. “We pick on runs and wickets primarily, but I think it’s foolish not to also say there are standards that need to be set.

“You need to behave in accordance with your position. We’re in a very privileged position, and it’s understanding that privilege and what goes along with it. It can’t be convenient. You can’t be when it suits you to do the right things, then when you don’t want it to suit you, not.

“You’ve got to live it every day. If we can create something when you want to live it every day and better, then that’s really powerful.”

It was a line that will echo through the dressing room. Runs and wickets will still pick the team, but behaviour will shape careers.

No call to Stokes

If there was a temptation to make an early, dramatic statement, it would have been to pick up the phone to Ben Stokes.

The former Test captain retired from international cricket in July. He and Fleming know each other well from their time together at Chennai Super Kings in the IPL. A new coach, an Ashes looming, an all-time great in exile – it writes itself.

Fleming wants no part of it.

He met Stokes this week during Durham’s draw with Worcestershire. He saw a man at peace.

“He was in a great space, really happy, enjoying his time with Durham,” Fleming said. “He’s got a good winter planned with the family and is very much at peace with his decision.

“When a player makes that decision to retire, I respect that decision 100%. To try to turn that around and question that is wrong. I know how much goes into that type of decision, and I respect that.”

No tug on the heartstrings. No late-night sales pitch. Just a firm line: the door stays closed unless Stokes himself reaches for the handle.

Calm authority after chaos

Fleming has taken his time easing into the job. Appointed in July, he will not take charge of a Test until the tour of South Africa in December, having missed the Pakistan series because of family and commercial commitments.

In the meantime, he has been doing the quiet work. County visits. Conversations. A long afternoon at Old Trafford on Saturday, watching England beat Sri Lanka in the third T20. Hours on the phone with players, staff, decision-makers.

He laughed that he has a “stress fracture of the left ear” from the volume of calls. He joked about turning up in fancy dress at Chennai Super Kings to loosen the mood. The humour is there, but it sits on top of something more solid.

Calm. Measured. Authoritative. After a year of turbulence on and off the field, England suddenly look like they have a grown-up in charge.

The comparison with McCullum is unavoidable. Where McCullum felt like the high-stakes gambler, Fleming feels like the seasoned investor. The relationship has already been framed as “big brother” and kid brother, and in a split-coaching era that has often tripped England up, their friendship might be the glue that keeps the structure from cracking.

He has already signalled that the World Test Championship will matter more to England under his watch than it has in the past. No shrugging at points tables. No treating it as a sideshow.

And “Flemball”? The inevitable label has already been floated. He batted it away with a smile, calling it “a medical condition”. No manifesto. No catchphrase.

What there will be, if his words match his methods, is a side that plays the percentages, reads the conditions, and still leaves room for a little chaos when the moment demands it.

Less freewheeling than McCullum’s England? Almost certainly. Less fun? Possibly.

If they walk into South Africa in December and start winning, no one in English cricket will care.