Vaughan accuses England players of ‘acting like students’ on nights out

Michael Vaughan has accused some of England’s cricketers of “going out like students” in Australia and warned that offenders would have to be “sent home” if they refused to exercise restraint.

The former England captain was commenting after Ben Duckett was fined £1,500 and given a final written warning over his behaviour after pouring a drink over Jimmy Anderson.

“When your team are under surveillance, to think you’ve gone back to the same bar where the [Jonny] Bairstow [butt] incident happened – the first night you’re back in town – it’s just stupid,” Vaughan said.

“You can’t fathom the mentality of people, in the team room having a quiz night, going: ‘Right we’re going out, we’ve found a venue and it’s The Avenue Bar.’

“The problem with incidents like Jonny’s and the one that happened the other day, you have to look at the whole group as one.

“The majority of this England team are very professional. But you have one or two bad eggs in the group. They act like students when they go out.”

Vaughan was aghast that Duckett behaved as he did 36 hours before a tour game. He said: “I look at Ben Duckett – he’s not in the England team. If you go out and get 150, England are 2-0 down in the Ashes and we’re all talking about the batting. Where is his mentality at, that he wants to be out that late when he’s playing for England?

“One or two other players are out of the team. What are they thinking going out on a Thursday night? They’ve been sat on the sidelines for three weeks.

“If Trevor Bayliss [the England coach] feels he’s got to get rid of a few people, that’s what he’s got to do.

“I’ve never agreed with curfews, but if that’s the only way they can keep these players in, they’ll have to keep it around the team for a while. It’s not the right thing, because you want people to act like human beings, but if you can’t trust them to act like human beings you’ve got to bring your curfew in.

“I do think the punishment’s got to be a bit stronger now. It’s come to the stage where every England cricketer needs to be sat in a room and told: ‘Do what you want but, if you bring any bad publicity on the team, you’ll just get sent home.’

“I hope in their own groups they are quite embarrassed. It’s like the Fredalo incident – I was quite embarrassed by it. It just didn’t look good on us all.

“Ben Duckett’s a young kid. I would question the senior players who were in the bar that night. They are the role models all those young players should be looking up to.”

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