SYDNEY (AP) — England's players and management are undergoing a performance review following the 4-1 Ashes series defeat in Australia, with England Wales Cricket Board chief executive Richard Gould vowing to “implement the necessary changes" over coming months.
Gould issued a statement after England's five-wicket loss in the fifth test Thursday, highlighting disappointment in the campaign after the squad traveled to Australia with high expectations of ending a long drought Down Under.
The planning, tactics and preparation of head coach Brendon McCullum and cricket director Rob Key will be part of the review, along with “individual performances and behaviors” and the team's ability to adapt and react to conditions.
“This Ashes tour began with significant hope and anticipation, and it is therefore deeply disappointing that we have been unable to fulfill our ambition," Gould said. “While there were moments of strong performance and resilience, including a hard-fought victory in the fourth test in Melbourne, we were not consistent enough across all conditions and phases of the contest.”
Gould said the cricket board was “determined to improve quickly” as the team prepares for the Twenty20 Cricket World Cup in India and Sri Lanka next month.
England captain Ben Stokes said the performances were “so far below the level that this team can operate at."
He suggested one reason might the ability of opposing teams to counteract England's attack-at-all costs ”Bazball" approach, which is a vast departure tactically from conventional test cricket.
“We are now playing against teams who have answers to the style of cricket that we have been playing over quite a long period of time,” Stokes said. "In the first couple of years (under McCullum), teams found it difficult to try and come up with anything to combat the way that we played.
“But there’s moments in games throughout the (Ashes) series, and even before that, where we’ve almost gifted the flow of the game back to the opposition.”
Stokes said England had to be prepared to rethink its approach, having lost 14 test of the 28 test matches it has played since the beginning of 2024.
“When a trend is happening on a consistent basis in the way that you don’t want it to happen, that’s when you do need to go back and go look at the drawing board and make some adjustments,” he said.
McCullum, the main architect of England's aggressive batting approach that the tourists started the tour with, said he'd be open to minor changes but not a complete overhaul.
“You’ve got to have conviction in your methods,” he told the BBC. "You’re not against evolution and progress, but you’ve got to have conviction in what you believe in.
“It’s about nipping and tucking to try and get a better version of your style and your beliefs.”
McCullum said he'd “see what happens” with the review “but I firmly believe in how we go about trying to build this team and progress on what we’ve done.”
One person in McCullum's corner will be his captain.
“If something ever comes to it, I’ll be asked for my opinion and he’ll be getting my full support,” Stokes said. "I absolutely love working with Baz, he’s a great man and he’s a very, very, very good coach.”
Australia retained the Ashes with wins in Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide, before England's drought-breaking win in the fourth test in Melbourne made it 3-1 ahead of the test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Australia has won four consecutive home Ashes series since England's last win here in 2010-11.
England struggled this tour with injuries to key bowlers Jofra Archer and Mark Wood, a heavy workload for skipper Ben Stokes which meant he couldn't bowl on the last day of the series, and a consistently flawed approach to batting in pressure situations.
England's fielding was also problematic across the series, with a reported 17 catches put down at a cost of hundreds of runs.
AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
England's Ben Stokes signs his autograph for a fan following the fifth and final Ashes cricket test between England and Australia in Sydney, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Australia's Cameron Green, left, is congratulated by England's Jacob Bethell following the fifth and final Ashes cricket test between England and Australia in Sydney, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
England's Ben Stokes, centre, gestures to teammate Brydon Carse, right, during play on the last day of the fifth and final Ashes cricket test between England and Australia in Sydney, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran signaled Friday that security forces would crack down on protesters, directly challenging U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge to support those peacefully demonstrating as the death toll rose to at least 62.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed Trump as having hands “stained with the blood of Iranians” as supporters shouted “Death to America!” in footage aired by Iranian state television. State media later repeatedly referred to demonstrators as “terrorists,” setting the stage for a violent crackdown like those that followed other nationwide protests in recent years.
Protesters are “ruining their own streets ... in order to please the president of the United States,” the 86-year-old Khamenei said to a crowd at his compound in Tehran. “Because he said that he would come to their aid. He should pay attention to the state of his own country instead.”
Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei separately vowed that punishment for protesters “will be decisive, maximum and without any legal leniency.”
There was no immediate response from Washington, though Trump has repeated his pledge to strike Iran if protesters are killed, a threat that's taken on greater significance after the U.S. military raid that seized Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro.
Despite Iran’s theocracy cutting off the nation from the internet and international telephone calls, short online videos shared by activists purported to show protesters chanting against Iran’s government around bonfires as debris littered the streets in the capital, Tehran, and other areas into Friday morning.
Iranian state media alleged “terrorist agents” of the U.S. and Israel set fires and sparked violence. It also said there were “casualties,” without elaborating.
The full scope of the demonstrations couldn’t be immediately determined due to the communications blackout, though it represented yet another escalation in protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy and that has morphed into the most significant challenge to the government in several years. The protests have intensified steadily since beginning Dec. 28.
The protests also represented the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose fatally ill father fled Iran just before the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Pahlavi, who called for the protests Thursday night, similarly has called for demonstrations at 8 p.m. Friday.
Demonstrations have included cries in support of the shah, something that could bring a death sentence in the past but now underlines the anger fueling the protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy.
So far, violence around the demonstrations has killed at least 62 people while more than 2,300 others have been detained, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
“What turned the tide of the protests was former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi’s calls for Iranians to take to the streets at 8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday,” said Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Per social media posts, it became clear that Iranians had delivered and were taking the call seriously to protest in order to oust the Islamic Republic.”
“This is exactly why the internet was shut down: to prevent the world from seeing the protests. Unfortunately, it also likely provided cover for security forces to kill protesters.”
When the clock struck 8 p.m. Thursday, neighborhoods across Tehran erupted in chanting, witnesses said. The chants included “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to the Islamic Republic!” Others praised the shah, shouting: “This is the last battle! Pahlavi will return!” Thousands could be seen on the streets before all communication to Iran cut out.
“Iranians demanded their freedom tonight. In response, the regime in Iran has cut all lines of communication,” Pahlavi said. “It has shut down the internet. It has cut landlines. It may even attempt to jam satellite signals.”
He went on to call for European leaders to join Trump in promising to “hold the regime to account.”
“I call on them to use all technical, financial, and diplomatic resources available to restore communication to the Iranian people so that their voice and their will can be heard and seen,” he added. “Do not let the voices of my courageous compatriots be silenced.”
Pahlavi had said he would offer further plans depending on the response to his call. His support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past — particularly after the 12-day war Israel waged on Iran in June. Demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some demonstrations, but it isn’t clear whether that’s support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The internet cut also appears to have taken Iran’s state-run and semiofficial news agencies offline. The state TV acknowledgment at 8 a.m. Friday represented the first official word about the demonstrations.
State TV claimed the protests were violent and caused casualties, but did not offer nationwide figures. It said the protests saw “people’s private cars, motorcycles, public places such as the metro, fire trucks and buses set on fire.” State TV later reported that violence overnight killed six people in Hamedan, some 280 kilometers (175 miles) southwest of Tehran, and two security force members in Qom, 125 kilometers (75 miles) south of the capital.
The European Union and Germany condemned the violence targeting demonstrators as new protests were reported in Zahedan in Iran's restive southwestern Sistan and Baluchestan province.
Iran has faced rounds of nationwide protests in recent years. As sanctions tightened and Iran struggled after the 12-day war, its rial currency collapsed in December, reaching 1.4 million to $1. Protests began soon after, with demonstrators chanting against Iran’s theocracy.
It remains unclear why Iranian officials have yet to crack down harder on the demonstrators. Trump warned last week that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” America “will come to their rescue.”
In an interview with talk show host Hugh Hewitt aired Thursday, Trump reiterated his pledge.
Iran has “been told very strongly, even more strongly than I’m speaking to you right now, that if they do that, they’re going to have to pay hell,” Trump said.
He demurred when asked if he’d meet with Pahlavi.
“I’m not sure that it would be appropriate at this point to do that as president,” Trump said. “I think that we should let everybody go out there, and we see who emerges.”
Speaking in an interview with Sean Hannity aired Thursday night on Fox News, Trump went as far as to suggest Khamenei may want to leave Iran.
“He's looking to go someplace,” Trump said. “It's getting very bad.”
This frame grab from a video released by Iran state TV shows vehicles burning amid night of mass protests in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (Iran state TV via AP)
This frame grab from a video released Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, by Iranian state television shows cars driving past burning vehicles during a night of mass protests in Tehran, Iran. (Iranian state TV via AP)
In this frame grab from video taken by an individual not employed by The Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran shows people blocking an intersection during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Thursday Jan. 8, 2026. (UGC via AP)
