England in new Ashes alcohol shame
Duckett poured drink over Anderson’s head in bar Lions player dropped after latest tour embarrassment
England’s disastrous Ashes tour was plunged into more disarray yesterday by another alcohol-related incident which left Lions player Ben Duckett facing disciplinary action for pouring a drink over James Anderson’s head.
Duckett was due to play for England in a warm-up game yesterday as one of six Lions filling in for Test players given time off. After the management learned of Thursday night’s episode, which happened in the same Perth bar where Jonny Bairstow was involved in a bizarre ‘headbutt’ incident at the start of the tour, Duckett was dropped.
With his team 2-0 down in the series and Australia looking to regain the Ashes this week at the Waca, where England have not won for 40 years, the last thing Trevor Bayliss, the head coach, would have wanted was another off-field, alcohol-related problem.
After this tour, a fed-up Bayliss is likely to drop a core of players he believes are at the centre of most problems as he tries to regain control.
“I think it was fairly trivial but, in the current climate, it is not acceptable. Everyone has been warned about how even small things can be blown out of all proportion. The ECB have also been quite strict with the boys with their message,” said Bayliss. English cricket is fighting for its reputation following the Ben Stokes arrest which put the focus on his team-mates’ behaviour in Australia. Taken on their own, the Bairstow and Duckett incidents are trivial, but in the light of the Stokes arrest, and after several warnings about their conduct from Bayliss and Andrew Strauss, the team director, they have become more serious.
Bayliss and Strauss imposed a midnight curfew after the Bairstow ‘butt’ but lifted it for one night on Thursday to allow the players to go out and relax with a week to go before the third Ashes Test.
The Ashes squad had a quiz night in the team room at their hotel before some joined a group of Lions players in the Avenue bar in Claremont, Perth.
The team’s security officers were with the players and had been briefed by the management to send them home if they thought they were getting out of hand. It is understood the security officers bundled the players into taxis after the Duckett incident and reported it to management the following day.
As a Lions player, Duckett will be disciplined by coach Andy Flower, and Bayliss will deal with any members of the senior squad he believes are at fault. Anderson has been cleared of any wrongdoing.
“There will be an investigation. We will get to the root of it,” said Bayliss, speaking at the end of play after day one of the match against a Cricket Australia XI. “[It happened] after midnight. Some of our first team were there. I allowed that to happen.
“We said no curfews that night and let them off. They were not breaking any rules from that point of view. [I’m] disappointed. It doesn’t matter how trivial it is, in this environment after what we have already had to go through, it is just not right.
“First of all, we have to find out what exactly happened, and that investigation will go forward in the next 24 hours. Andy will be looking after his players and if anything needs to be said and done with the first team, we will handle that. I am sure there will be stern words from above.”
When asked if he was fed up of having to answer questions about off-field behaviour, Bayliss answered: “Yes, very much so.” Then he was asked what he could do about it. “Might review who is in the team,” he replied. “We can’t keep making the same mistakes. Most of the guys are fine. Somewhere along the line, some guys are going to have to pull their head in.”