English cricket launches new era with New Zealand flavor

By STEVE DOUGLAS
AP Sports Writer

There was a distinct New Zealand flavor to the new era for English cricket that was launched at Lord’s. Brendon McCullum took his first training session as coach of the men’s test team that will be captained for the first time by Ben Stokes in England’s opening match of its international summer starting Thursday. The opponent will be New Zealand. That’s where Stokes was born and for whom McCullum is a cricket great. New Zealand coach Gary Stead says seeing McCullum in charge of England is “strange.” McCullum has spoken of wanting to rid the team of what he described as a “fear of failure” and introducing a more relaxed environment.