Brendon McCullum plans golf and adventure holiday for England players

Brendon McCullum is organising a week-long team-bonding camp for England’s Test players in New Zealand next year as part of the new head coach’s philosophy of maximising off-field enjoyment and relaxation.

A feature of England’s remarkable winning start to the Test summer – four successive run-chases that peaked with a record 378 knocked off against India at Edgbaston – has been a loosening of any rigid training demands by McCullum and his captain, Ben Stokes, with players given greater say over their pre-match preparation.

The midnight curfew that has been in place since the start of the 2017-18 Ashes has also been temporarily lifted on the night of each victory and with the restrictive biosecure bubbles brought in now removed, the squad has shed much of the collective anxiety that hampered the previous two years.

In a sign of the new approach, plans are under way for England’s red-ball players to spend a week in Queenstown, on McCullum’s native South Island, before their two match-series in New Zealand next February. No media will be allowed, no cricket will be played and a range of activities are expected to be laid on, including golf and adventure sports.

It contrasts with the gruelling Bavarian boot camp organised by Andy Flower before the victorious 2010-11 Ashes tour but is in-keeping with the mood that has prevailed this season. Players can arrive at the ground only 30 minutes before the start of play if they do not intend to warm up, particularly on batting days.

Stokes, who revealed he was pondering this approach while still a player in the ranks, said: “The first chat with Baz [McCullum] was: ‘Yeah we can do it this way – why not?’ As long as everyone goes out there at 11am – or 10.30am this last game – and is