Brendon

Key was also a guest on the the TMS programme and he said England will make changes in the way they approach selection.

There had been a perception that the England Test team felt like a ‘closed shop’, particularly to players in county cricket who did not fit the aggressive Bazball style.

Key said the introduction of a “county insight group” to offer input into selection will attempt to formally rebuild relations with stakeholders, including directors of cricket, in the domestic game.

The 46-year-old former Kent captain also said England’s selection policy will become more cut-throat compared to the past when certain players have almost appeared undroppable.

“We’ve overvalued loyalty and overvalued having a settled team,” Key said.

“We thought what we wanted to do is make sure we have a team that is settled out there [in Australia], that we go out there and we’re not giving debuts to opening batters [during the Ashes] and stuff like that.

“But what that does is it creates an environment where there’s not enough consequence. We need to be more ruthless with our selection.”

McCullum is due to return to work towards the end of May as England gear up for a Test series against his native New Zealand which starts at Lord’s on 4 June.

However, Vaughan felt it would have been worthwhile McCullum spending time on the circuit during the early rounds of the County Championship – for good PR if nothing else.

“I’m a bit disappointed that he’s not coming a bit earlier,” Vaughan said.

“I think at this stage, when you’re trying to win back the fans, trying to win back a little bit of the game, if I was Brendon McCullum, I’d come a few weeks earlier, get seen around the counties.

“I’d go and talk to a few coaches, go and speak to a few umpires, get seen out and about just for the optics. Because at this stage he needs the fans, and he needs the game to kind of get behind his philosophy a little bit more.”

You can watch the full TMS debate over the post-Ashes review on BBC iPlayer or download it as a podcast.

Nicholas Brendon, best known for portraying the loyal, wisecracking Xander Harris in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” died Friday from natural causes after dealing with a congenital heart defect and other health issues in recent years. He was 54.

His family shared news of his passing in a statement posted on the actor’s social media accounts. While it’s “no secret Nicholas had struggles in the past,” they said, he was on medication to manage his diagnosis and “optimistic about the future” at the time of his death.

His siblings and parents asked for privacy as they grieve the loss of “a man who lived with intensity, imagination, and heart.”

“He was passionate, sensitive, and endlessly driven to create,” the family stated. “Those who truly knew him understood that his art was one of the purest reflections of who he was.”

Brendon was born in Los Angeles in 1971 and began his acting career in the mid-’90s. He got his big break in 1997 when he was cast as Harris in “Buffy.” Over the show’s seven-season run, Brendon became a central figure, portraying the witty, insecure but dependable “everyman” in the gang’s battles against the forces of darkness.

He starred in his first feature film, “Psycho Beach Party,” in 2000, playing the love interest Starcat in the indie flick that’s now regarded as a cult classic.

After “Buffy” ended in 2003, Brendon continued working in television, making appearances on series such as “Without a Trace,” “Private Practice,” and “Kitchen Confidential.” He also played a recurring role as FBI technical analyst Kevin Lynch on “Criminal Minds.”

In 2022, his family shared that he had been rushed to the hospital because of tachycardia, a condition that makes the heart beat abnormally fast, and had been diagnosed with a congenital heart defect that is common in twins. Brendon has an identical twin brother named Kelly Donovan, who appeared as his stand-in and double in episodes of “Buffy.”

The “Criminal Minds” star also underwent multiple spinal surgeries to manage cauda equina syndrome, a rare condition in which nerve bundles in the lumbar or sacral spine are compressed or not functioning properly. His serious spinal injury was triggered by a fall in 2021, which required emergency surgery to prevent paralysis, his manager Theresa Fortier said in a statement at the time.

In recent years, he developed a love for painting and the arts and enjoyed sharing his emerging talent with family and friends, his family said.

Former Times staff writer Nardine Saad contributed to this report.