Watch: Ben Duckett investigated by England after appearing drunk in video

Credit: Social Media

England chiefs are looking into a video purporting to show Ben Duckett slurring his words amid an investigation into reports of excessive drinking during players’ mid-Ashes break in Noosa.

The England and Wales Cricket Board said it was looking to “establish the facts” following the emergence of a 78-second clip on X on Tuesday morning.

In the video Duckett says he does not know where he is staying or how to get home. In response an unknown male says to the England opener: “Shall we get you an Uber to the nets, bro’? Probably for the best.”

A spokesperson said: “We are aware of content circulating on social media. We have high expectations for behaviour, accepting that players are often under intense levels of scrutiny, with established processes that we follow when conduct falls below expectations. We also support players that need assistance.

“We will not comment further at this stage while we establish the facts.”

The video emerged after Rob Key, the England director of cricket, said excessive alcohol intake was “completely unacceptable” for professional cricketers.

His remarks followed reports some players embarked on four days of drinking in Noosa, the Queensland holiday resort, before the team surrendered the Ashes with an 82-run defeat at the Adelaide Oval.

The trip, which was the idea of head coach Brendon McCullum, had been planned a year in advance and involved the whole Ashes squad and backroom team, although Joe Root did stay separately at the resort with his young family.

The players happily posed for pictures with fans and were a visible presence in Noosa, drinking in public from noon until closing time, with clips later emerging on X purporting to show Jacob Bethell enjoying himself there.

When Peter Sim, the strength and conditioning coach, offered to take the squad for a run in the morning, only three players turned up and the trip ended with one of the England security officers becoming embroiled in a row with a cameraman at the airport.

Key, who did not go to Noosa with the squad, believes, pending further inquiries, that the drinking did not go too far, but accepts it was a bad look for a team who were 2-0 down in the Ashes and had lost the first Test inside two days.

Rob Key speaks to the media during a press conference ahead of an England nets session at the MCG — Rob Key said excessive drinking would be viewed as ‘completely unacceptable’ – Getty Images

“I’ve actually read what’s happened, or what’s been written in the last day or so. And if it goes into where they’re drinking lots and it’s a stag do, all of that type of stuff, that’s completely unacceptable. I’m not a drinker, I think a drinking culture doesn’t help anyone in any stretch whatsoever. I have no issue with the Noosa trip if it was to get away and just throw your phone away, down tools, go on the beach, all of that stuff. And we’ve added the security, we’ve got enough ways of finding out exactly what happened and everything that I’ve heard so far is that they sat down, had lunch, had dinner, didn’t go out late, all of that, had the odd drink, I don’t mind that. If it goes past that, then that’s an issue as far as I’m concerned. That’s what we’ll find out.

“If there’s things where people are saying that our players went out and drank excessively then of course we’ll be looking into that. Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol for an international cricket team is not something that I’d expect to see at any stage. And it would be a fault not to look into what happened there. But from everything that I’ve heard so far, they actually were pretty well behaved. Very well behaved.”

Ben Stokes in a net session — This tour seems to have taken a toll on England captain Ben Stokes – Shutterstock/James Ross

It followed social media footage emerging in October of Jacob Bethell and Harry Brook in a bar the night before a one-day international in Wellington in October, a series England lost 3-0. Key described that as a “wake-up call” for the media attention in Australia and places like Noosa.

“I don’t mind players having a glass of wine over dinner. Anything more than that, I think is ridiculous, really,” Key said. “There wasn’t any formal action. We’ve had four years where we’ve had none of these issues really, with any of the players. And there’s a whole process that we put in place for stuff like that for what you do if they’re out of line. And I didn’t feel like that was worthy of formal warnings. But it was probably worthy of informal ones.”

News crews captured pictures of the team in Noosa, where some players drank every day – Queensland Channel 7

The Noosa trip was planned as a bonding session by McCullum. Root was the only player to be joined by his family. The rest met up with partners and children in Adelaide and Melbourne.

“I thought the boys were outstanding over the last week we’ve had in Noosa,” the England coach said when the squad arrived in Adelaide to begin preparations for the third Test. “They’ve been engaging with a lot of locals and everyone was in good spirits.”

The last Ashes tour in 2021-22 ended with reports of a booze culture within the England squad and drinking on tour is embedded in English cricket. It is no surprise that under the glare of Ashes scrutiny, that some look to unwind with a drink and England did actually play better in Adelaide than they had in the first two Tests. On the last tour to England, the Australia squad had a mid-series break and they went their separate ways to various places across Europe, rather than head to one resort.

b’

‘

Key echoed McCullum in accepting the players were not prepared well enough for the challenge of Ashes cricket and said his future is in the hands of the England and Wales Cricket Board when it reviews the tour after the series ends in Sydney. Head coaches Duncan Fletcher, Andy Flower and Chris Silverwood all lost their jobs following Ashes defeats in Australia since 2002-03 and Key’s predecessor, Ashley Giles, was sacked in the aftermath of a 4-0 series loss four years ago.

“The players we had, we haven’t helped them get to their best, and that’s on us as a set-up,” he said. “You don’t mind losing, the regret is that you’ve not played anything like your best, really. For me, it’s just focusing on that. The decision really for the ECB will be whether or not they want to rip it up and start again, or whether they want to evolve and whether we’re the right people to do that.

“Clearly, I believe that Brendon is an excellent coach. His record is very good. This is only the third series we’ve lost in four years. His win record is very good as well. Clearly we’ve mucked up on the big occasions, whether that was the home Ashes series, whether that was last summer against India where we should have won that series as well. There’s been some brilliant moments along the way. I still feel like there’s plenty of life in this whole thing now, but we have to evolve. We have to make sure that we’re doing things better. As you know, these things are taken out of people’s hands a lot of the time.”

Cricket Australia officials have said England were offered a warm-up match against their A team in either Adelaide or at the MCG, but turned it down in favour of the intra-squad game at Lilac Hill, which Key now admits was nothing like the preparation needed for the first Test. The two boards disagree on what was offered and when, but the fact is McCullum and Stokes were given what they wanted. Had they been unhappy with the preparation on offer, they are strong-minded characters who would have said so publicly and forcefully. The one-day tour of New Zealand in October was arranged in the schedule before this regime was appointed and Key felt he had to send a strong team to give new white-ball captain Harry Brook the best possible chance of winning a series.

“Probably about a year ago we had a choice of whether we went to Adelaide and played against an Australian team there, or whether we just went to Perth and tried to control the preparation ourselves. They said to us, actually, if you go there, it’s not going to be the Waca or Optus, you’re going to end up at a club ground. And I said, no, it’s fine. We feel we can control that preparation better. We can end up getting the most out of a game because you can get the players in you want, you could maybe give your bowlers a bit of time, you could maybe take someone out of all of that.

“But the conditions there didn’t replicate [the Test]. I don’t think they would have done in Adelaide, either. So I don’t necessarily believe that had we just gone and played there, then we’d be now 3-0 up in the Ashes. I don’t think that’s the case.”

Brendan McCullum chats with Ollie Pope at the MCG ahead of the fourth Ashes Test — Brendon McCullum chats at the MCG with Ollie Pope, who may be dropped for the fourth Test – AFP via Getty Images

One of McCullum’s first acts as head coach was to trim the backroom staff, with the fielding and wicketkeeping coaching roles axed. England dropped five catches in Brisbane and two in Adelaide and are yet to run out an Australian batsman. They have been comprehensively out-fielded by their opponents.

“There’s probably a few spots where we’re weak in terms of our set-up at the moment, where we’ve stripped it back too much and there’s probably a few places we need to start bringing in some of that resource again,” Key said.

Ollie Pope is set to be dropped for the fourth Test after being given far too many chances by England and the Shoaib Bashir selection is also perplexing. After backing him for two years, Key said they decided to “hedge our bets” on Will Jacks because he offered more runs.

Noosa jolly sums up mind-boggling naivety

b’

‘

England’s jolly to Noosa was another example of their mind-boggling Ashes tour naivety. From the fundamentals of preparation to sinking a few schooners in a bar, England have consistently failed to recognise the scale of scrutiny that goes with playing in Australia.

They have prepped for tours to New Zealand and Pakistan (both twice) and India without playing any meaningful warm-up cricket and won the first Test on each occasion, so thought they had stumbled on a formula that confirmed Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum’s view that practice matches are an encumbrance.

In India, they disappeared to the anonymity of Dubai, where there are no cameras or an aggressive media, for a break between the second and third Tests and then some went to Bangalore to play golf when presented with a similar gap before the last Test in Dharamsala.

On the first New Zealand tour under McCullum, they started with a long “bonding” trip to Queenstown to play golf and get on it. When they went 2-0 up in New Zealand 12 months ago, they celebrated too hard and were thumped in the third Test.

The lack of warm-up cricket and the pre or mid-series jaunts on those trips attracted little attention because they did not happen in Australia with the Ashes at stake – the prize by which every England regime is judged.

In the hermetically sealed world of Bazball, there were no dissenting voices when it was suggested a year ago they do it all again in Australia.

Players baffled by what all the fuss is about

After losing the Brisbane Test, they were encouraged to go out and front up in Noosa, not hide away. It was felt by England that they were there on holiday and should be confident about that fact: they had made the right decision and were going to enjoy themselves.

Which is all well and good if you are winning, but at 2-0 down after becoming the first England team to lose a two-day Test in Australia, it only opens you up to a backlash if you lose the next game, which is exactly what transpired and put a different light on how people react to stories about what the players got up to in Noosa.

Noosa beachfront and bar acted as a holiday resort for England's players — Noosa beachfront and bar acted as a holiday resort for England’s players

At the moment it appears they did not do very much other than a few of them spend long hours drinking in the most public place – on the main strip overlooking the beach. It was all done with the blessing of the management and one or two players are now understood to be baffled by what all the fuss is about.

Not for the first time, management has sent mixed messages. Go out and have a dart with the bat, then, at 2–0 down, rein it in. Enjoy yourselves, lads, in Noosa yet now Rob Key is talking about speaking to security to establish what went on. It suggests he does not really know. Key says he is confident nothing too serious occurred, but stopped short of giving them the all clear, perhaps covering his back under pressure from those at Lord’s, far removed from events and jolted by yesterday’s headlines, including Will Macpherson’s Telegraph report from Noosa.

But it is the innocence, or stubbornness, to think going to one of the most famous surfing resorts halfway through an assignment like the Ashes is a good idea rather than keeping a lower profile. It has been the story of the tour. McCullum’s comment that England had over-prepared for the second Test after forgoing a pink ball warm-up game in Canberra angered fans who had spent fortunes to follow the team in Australia. Likewise when batting coach Marcus Trescothick said they had not discussed the dangers of driving on the up on bouncy, Australian pitches. Jeetan Patel, another assistant coach, capped it all this week by blaming others outside the group for describing the Ashes as a defining series, despite McCullum and Key doing just that themselves.

Booze and Ashes tours are no strangers. The last trip in 2021-22 ended with stories of England’s drinking culture, although at least they could blame the confines of Covid restrictions for driving them to the bottle. This group of players probably drink far less than previous generations, but the free-thinking, freewheeling of the early Bazball years was intended to lift everyone from the post-Covid blues. But just like their batting, it had to be modified for the biggest series of all. They failed to do that and “stag do” headlines are the result.

Article courtesy of
Source link