English cricket and its drinking problem: Another nightclub incident brings shame on men’s team

It was a telling remark, especially when revisited two months later. “I probably won’t be real happy and smiley,” then-England cricket captain Ben Stokes told reporters after beating New Zealand in a hard-fought test match at Lord’s in June, “until I get up there and share a proper beer with the boys.”

After all, having a post-match drink with teammates and sometimes rivals in the dressing room is a cricketing tradition as old as time.

The off-field conduct and drinking habits of England’s men’s squad are back under scrutiny this week after another nightclub incident involving one of its players.

This time it was Brydon Carse, a 31-year-old fast bowler and one of the team’s success stories in recent years. The images of him - outside a club in the early hours of Sunday in handcuffs and surrounded by police officers - were hard to ignore, especially as the saga came days after a plea by newly appointed England captain Joe Root.

“Ultimately you’re grown adults,” said Root, speaking after England’s leadership opted to scrap a midnight curfew that had been imposed on the men’s team following a string of controversial late-night incidents.

“You know what it takes to play for England, you know what your responsibilities are off the field, and we need to make sure we don’t find ourselves with any little situations off the field.”

And so, with England’s Cricket Regulator getting down to work investigating another off-the-field issue, it’s back to square one.

In this age of sports science and ultra-professionalism, there are wider questions over whether cricketers should have a beer after a match. Or do players just need to be a bit smarter?

“Just have some kind of brain cells amongst you, seeing what’s just gone on,” former England captain Alastair Cook said on the Stick to Cricket podcast released Tuesday. “Surely someone says either don’t go to that place, or at 12 a.m. or 1 a.m. say, ‘Let’s go and find ourselves somewhere quieter if we want to carry on.”

Here’s a look at the late-night incidents that have brought shame on English cricket: Before going to Australia for what proved a humiliating Ashes series, England traveled to New Zealand in October for a white-ball tour. A day before the third and final one-day international, team captain Harry Brook was hit by a bouncer after being denied entry to a club in Wellington, with teammates Jacob Bethell and Josh Tongue also present on the night out.

Brook was fined about 30,000 pounds ($40,300) at the time and given a final warning for his future conduct - sanctions not made public until months later, after the Ashes series that England lost 4-1.

“I want to apologise for my actions,” Brook said. “I fully accept that my behavior was wrong and brought embarrassment to both myself and the England team.”

Between the second and third tests in the Ashes series against Australia in December, England visited the resort town of Noosa on the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane for some downtime in the midst of a long tour.

While there, footage was taken of England opening batter Ben Duckett looking disorientated as he talked to a group of people on a night out and saying he was unable to remember how to get back to his hotel. “I am sorry for that incident, it was not professional and shouldn’t have happened,” Duckett said. “There is no hiding away from it.”

Rob Key, England managing director of men’s cricket, said he would investigate the drinking habits of the England team.

Chastened by the Ashes hammering in the winter, England began its so-called “reset” with a home series against New Zealand in June.

After winning the first test, Stokes and fast bowler Gus Atkinson continued their post-match celebrations at Lord’s by going on a night out in London, during which a member of England’s security staff was reportedly struck by a rugby player from English club Saracens.

The fallout was huge: Stokes and Atkinson were left out of the second test amid an investigation that ultimately found that no “regulatory breach” had occurred. Stokes then returned for the third match, only to announce his retirement from international cricket midway through it, saying the past few months had “taken its toll.” Brendon McCullum then was fired as test coach, while Key said the England and Wales Cricket Board was considering imposing alcohol ban on team.