Drinking habits of cricketers to be probed
England’s managing director of men’s cricket Rob Key says he will investigate the drinking habits of the England team following reports that their mid-Ashes beach break may have involved over-indulging of alcohol, The Associated Press reported.
England lost each of the first three tests to allow Australia to retain the Ashes in just 11 days of on-field action.
The squad visited the resort town of Noosa on the Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane, between the second and third tests, a planned stop on the tour designed to help players relax and unwind.
Key, who did not join the players in Noosa, said he had no problem with the break, but would not be happy if he found evidence of over-indulging.
“If there are things where people are saying that our players went out and drank excessively, then of course we’ll be looking into that,” he said today in Melbourne, where the fourth Test begins on Friday.
“Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol for an international cricket team is not something that I’d expect to see at any stage, and it would be a fault not to look into what happened there. From everything that I’ve heard so far, they actually were pretty well behaved. Very well behaved.”
He added: “We’ve got enough ways of finding out exactly what happened and everything that I’ve heard so far that they sat down, had lunch, had dinner, didn’t go out late, all of that, had the odd drink. I don’t mind that. If it goes past that, then that’s an issue as far as I’m concerned.”
Key also said he had previously looked into reports that players had been spotted drinking the night before a match in New Zealand shortly before the Ashes.
A short clip of white-ball captain Harry Brook and Jacob Bethell was shared on social media by a member of the public, reportedly taken in Wellington before the third one-day international on Nov. 1.
“I didn’t feel like that was worthy of formal warnings, but it was probably worthy of informal ones,” he said.
“I think that was a bit of a wake-up call, actually, for what they’re going into. I don’t mind players having a glass of wine over dinner. Anything more than that, I think, is ridiculous, really.”