Bayliss fights fires as Duckett faces ejection from tour
Alcohol-fuelled trouble follows on-field failures as Ashes disintegration looms, writes Nick Hoult in Perth
There were two acts at play as Trevor Bayliss stood in front of a bank of microphones and cameras at a tiny club ground in south Perth, swatting flies out of his face. Firstly, the England coach was trying to keep a grip on England’s rapidly disintegrating Ashes tour. Secondly he was attempting to prove to executives from the England and Wales Cricket Board back in London that he was in control of the situation as they fret about sponsorship negotiations being put at risk and damage to the game’s reputation caused by Ben Stokes’s arrest and the recent Jonny Bairstow ‘headbutt’ episode.
Ben Duckett is facing the prospect of being sent home in disgrace from a Lions tour for pouring a drink over the head of James Anderson on Thursday night but what annoys Bayliss the most is that the first time he lifts the players’ curfew they betray his trust by getting involved in a silly incident.
After a quiz at the team hotel, organised by Gary Ballance on Thursday night, 10 members of the Ashes squad joined Lions players in the Avenue bar in Perth drinking until after midnight.
England felt they had to act publicly, fearing that if they tried to suppress the story a member of the public who had been at the bar could post a damaging video on social media or go to one of the Australian newspapers, which would gleefully splash on the story.
Bayliss and Andrew Strauss, the team director, are under heavy pressure from the ECB’s executive board to get a grip on the situation.
The ECB are currently looking for a new sponsor of Test cricket and county cricket’s Blast Twenty20 competition. They will have seen how New Balance, the sponsors of the team kit, dumped Ben Stokes over his arrest and will worry that brands will not want to be associated with the England team.
Bayliss reluctantly agreed to the midnight curfew after the Bairstow headbutt because he knew it would upset senior players who have done nothing wrong and are being punished for the antics of others.
The Australian players took the mickey out of England in the daynight second Test in Adelaide with jibes about having to be in bed by midnight or they would be in trouble with teacher. Bayliss felt they deserved a night out on arrival in Perth with a week to go before the third Test.
The England management are satisfied there is not a bad culture in the team, just a couple of individuals who do not think sensibly and are always at the centre of any trouble.
It is understood Bayliss and the selectors are willing to react after this Ashes tour, meaning some will not be going to New Zealand in February.
Anderson has been caught up in this incident but has a clean record, is hugely respected in the game, and is not one of those the management have identified as a problem. Instead it is others, more junior, who must fear for their careers because Bayliss will have to be seen to be taking action.
England believe sending a player home from an Ashes tour would cause even more unwanted headlines so a gradual phasing-out is more likely.
Privately, England cannot believe the players went back to the Avenue bar where the Bairstow incident with Cameron Bancroft happened earlier this month, and there could potentially have been members of the public looking for England players on a night out. It sums up how little the management trust the players that security staff have been told to put them in a taxi if they have drunk too much.
The security staff are employed generally to prevent incidents with members of the public rather than monitor behaviour, but that has now changed.
It was clear something was up when it was announced before play yesterday that Duckett had been pulled out of a makeshift England team to play a Cricket Australia XI. Bayliss decided to rest all of his out-of-form team apart from Moeen Ali, who is captain, and this was a big chance for Duckett, who played four Tests last year, to make an impression. Instead he was replaced by Worcestershire’s Joe Clarke. Reserve batsman Gary Ballance was out for one caught in the gully, doing nothing for his case for a recall as England declared on 314-8.
Alastair Cook, James Vince and Dawid Malan, three of England’s under-performing batsmen, had a net at Richardson Park while the game was going on.
Cook is struggling badly and England need his runs at the Waca, where they have lost seven consecutive Tests since 1986-87 and will surrender the Ashes if it becomes an eighth this week.
This will be Cook’s 150th Test match but his former England team-mate, Kevin Pietersen, believes that he is looking like a player nearing the end.
“I don’t know if he can turn things around,” said Pietersen. “Ricky Ponting talked about it before the series, saying he’s going to find it very difficult after getting rid of the captaincy to get himself up and turn it around. Ponting’s done it all before. He’s played 150, 160 Test matches, and he calls things pretty accurately and it looks like Cook is not very interested.
“It is just the way he’s got out, the manner of his dismissals, and also the way he’s walked off the field. That’s the sign of a bloke who goes, ‘You know what? Maybe my time is up.’
“He’s also quite resilient, so can he turn it around? He’s a wonderful player and has been for a hell of a long time. He might be able to put up a performance in his 150th Test match which gives them a lot of energy and excitement going into the Waca. He’s got a Test hundred at the Waca before.
“But who knows? That fire burns in your belly for a number of years and eventually starts to go out. I had spotted it before the series and there’s certainly no signs at the moment to prove there’s any fire in Cook’s belly.”