HOVE — When asked whether he still believes the door to an England recall is open in terms of his relationship with head coach Brendon McCullum, Ollie Robinson, who has not played international cricket for more than two years now, is refreshingly honest.
“I don’t really know,” he tells The i Paper.
“I still say to people now, I don’t really know what happened for me just to have just gone straight away.
“If I’m brutally honest, I’m still a bit confused as to what happened for me just to be sort of disregarded.
“I felt like I got on well with Brendon, I felt like I got on well with Stokesy [captain Ben Stokes] and Keysy [director of cricket Rob Key] and all the lads. But something obviously happened I wasn’t aware of or that they really didn’t like.
“And I probably could have picked up the phone and asked them, to be honest. That’s maybe something I could have done. But I was at a point in my life where I had a lot of issues going on personally that weren’t cricket-related and I had to get those sorted out before I could really think about that again.
“It wasn’t at the forefront of my mind. If anything, being home and sorting my life out was a bigger thing for me at that time. After India I found playing for Sussex really difficult. I had no love for the game, I had so much going on behind the scenes.
“I would bowl for a session, run to my phone and just check if things had been sorted out or what was going on. So it probably came at a good point in a sense but I still feel like I’ve got something to offer now for the England team.”
The 32-year-old spent the winter plying his trade in Australia grade cricket (Photo: Getty)Robinson, who had just gone through a break-up with the mother of his daughter at the time, is at pains to state he has no issue with McCullum and got well with the New Zealander when he was in the team for the first two years of the Bazball era before being discarded after his last appearance against India at Ranchi in February 2024. He also loved playing for Stokes.
“I sent Stokesy a message before the Ashes saying ‘Good luck, hope you boys rip it up,’” he says.
“I’d love to work with Stokesy again and win games of cricket for England. That dressing room when Stokesy and Baz took over was one of the best I’ve been in.
“So I’d love to be back in that dressing room and putting on that shirt again for England and Ben and Baz and trying to win games of cricket. It’s just whether that call comes again. I’ve not had any contact for 18 months to two years now.”
At 32, Robinson’s window for a recall is narrowing. But having taken over the captaincy of Sussex’s County Championship team and having worked through his personal issues, he is now in a good place again and determined to put his name back in the spotlight.
His 76 Test wickets at 22.92 show he has what it takes to succeed at the highest level. Now he hopes wickets at the start of the new Championship season that begins next Friday can do just that.
A new openness from England towards county cricket, with Key stating domestic form will carry more weight following the 4-1 Ashes hammering in Australia, should also help.
“From what they say, yeah,” Robinson says.
“But you never know until it happens. I don’t know if they’re talking about players that are maybe younger or people they want to see coming through as opposed to people that’ve already played for England. I haven’t had that conversation if that applies to me as well.
“But all I can do is take wickets and rip up trees to be in those conversations.”
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Chris Stocks: My England XI for the new era – and the five players most likely to be axed Chris Stocks: England to summon Brendon McCullum home early after Michael Vaughan criticismPart of the reason for his exile stems from the back problems that plagued his first spell in the England team. He believes his personal issues may have been responsible for that.
Robinson, who got married to his partner, Mia Baker, last October, says: “I’ve had conversations with psychologists since and maybe it was the mental stress that actually affected me and my back.
“Since my life’s been sorted out, if you like, my body’s been so much better. It might not have been a physical thing. I have probably learnt to manage it better.
“I’ve probably learnt that two years too late but hopefully the door’s not closed and I can show people that I’m still the bowler I was.”
He also feels there is unfinished business in terms of the Ashes, having narrowly missed out on winning at home in 2023 when England were held to a 2-2 draw by Australia despite dominating much of the series.
“We were so close to pulling it off,” he says. “It still grinds me now I’m not an Ashes winner. So I’d love to win the series next summer with England and with Ben.”
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