Bazball reminds me of Sir Alex Ferguson’s style, says Gary Neville

Gary Neville has compared the current England cricket team and their Bazball style of play, to legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

Bazball – instituted by and named after swashbuckling England coach Brendon McCullum – is about removing fear and playing with freedom, going against the more structured, traditional approach to Test cricket.

The tactic has seen some success, although it has also faced plenty of criticism for being recklessly gung-ho, and this winter’s Ashes tour to Australia will be an interesting litmus test.

And Neville, who was a talented cricketer in his youth before focussing on football, says the principles remind him of how Ferguson got his players to approach matches during Man United’s dominant era in the 1990s and 2000s.

Speaking on the Overlap and Betfair’s Stick to Cricket show, Neville said: “I like disruption, I like people who are brave, I like those types of people.

“Bazball reminds me a little bit of Sir Alex in terms of how he would approach a football match, throw the kitchen sink at it, expression, freedom, but you have to win. That’s the catch. You have to win.”

Chatting with Stick to Cricket hosts Michael Vaughan, Sir Alastair Cook, David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd and Phil Tufnell, ex-right back Neville also detailed what made Ferguson such an effective man-manager, even if that created certain challenges for his players.

“You fell out with Sir Alex Ferguson momentarily,” explained Neville. “Well, not fall out with him, but he would rip you to shreds at a certain moment in the season, there’d be times where he’d rip you to shreds two or three times.

“It was usually in big matches, you know, anything that was a mistake or lack of concentration. He used to hate lack of concentration. He would fall out with you momentarily, but he’d pick it up quite quickly.

“I think he simplified everything to a point whereby, do you know when your manager gives you the comfort that, ‘don’t worry, you are talented because I’ve picked you’.

“So that idea that you went out there believing in yourself and you were confident all the time and that you had to win. We knew we had to win, and it simplified everything – I don’t think management is like that now.”

Neville actually played alongside future England captain Vaughan at the Bunbury Cricket Festival for Lancashire’s under-14 team, while he also had an unbroken partnership of 236 with future Australian international Matthew Hayden for Greenmount Cricket Club in a Hamer Cup tie against Astley Bridge in 1992.

But he revealed that once Ferguson found out about his cricketing exploits, the Scot immediately put a stop to it.

“When I was 16 and joined United, in the summer I carried on playing cricket,” said Neville. “I Just didn’t think anything of it, you just played cricket in the summer.

“Then a picture went in the local paper, it made its way into the Manchester Evening News. I’d made my debut for United at that time, and I remember Sir Alex Ferguson calling me and saying, ‘You can’t play cricket. What are you doing for insurance purposes?’ So, literally, that stopped me, and that was my last ever game of cricket.”

But he believes his forays into the sport provided him with a crucial skill for his football career.

“When people say what toughened me up most, it was cricket,” insisted Neville. “Because I remember playing for the first team when I was 13, 14, and there were some pros that were like, Wendell Coppin [Barbadian professional] playing and he was quick.

“He was skidding them halfway down up around your head and you know something, it wasn’t for me that. At 14... Honestly, you’re there and you’re thinking, ‘this is not right... ‘And I was like, ‘woah’.

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