Ben dropped from test team after curfew breach

English cricket is back in a mess. Having just dealt with a shambolic Ashes tour featuring reports of excessive drinking and unprofessionalism, the England and Wales Cricket Board is fighting another fire just one week into the international summer. This time, the captain is at the heart of it all.

Ben Stokes, for so long the face of the English game, has been dropped from the test team after breaking a curfew he helped to draw up himself by going on a night out with teammate Gus Atkinson to celebrate a victory over New Zealand in the first match of the series on Sunday.

Stokes’ precise involvement in what the ECB is describing as an “incident” after midnight in a London nightclub isn’t fully clear. What is clear, however, is that his presence there has left England’s leadership group in another sticky situation - just when they were looking to show they had learnt their lesson. Why was English cricket in a rebuilding phase? This summer was supposed to be a reset for England after an Ashes tour Down Under that was humiliating on and off the field.

Not only did England lose 4-1, the team’s players came under scrutiny for their lack of professionalism — notably because of its apparent drinking culture. A video emerged appearing to show Ben Duckett disorientated and unable to remember how to get back to the hotel. Another video on social media showed batter Jacob Bethell dancing in a club. England was 2-0 down in the series by then. When the embarrassing tour was over, Harry Brook apologised for clashing with a nightclub bouncer during a short tour of New Zealand that preceded the Ashes.

No one from the leadership team — Stokes, coach Brendon McCullum and director of cricket Rob Key — lost their jobs following the post-Ashes review, with ECB chief executive Richard Gould saying: “I’ve seen the driving ambition and determination we’re lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes.”