England have drawn a line under the team’s infamous trip to Noosa between the second and third Ashes Tests after an internal investigation found the players had no case to answer.
Reports emerged after England went 3–0 down in Adelaide that the four-day break had resembled a stag-do, with some players doing little more than propping up the bar.
And the ECB went into damage-limitation mode after a video emerged of opening batsman Ben Duckett slurring his words in a late-night interaction with a fan.
Before the fourth Test in Melbourne, managing director Rob Key – who had not been in Noosa – promised to look into the allegations, and warned: ‘If they’re drinking lots and it’s a stag-do, all that type of stuff, that’s completely unacceptable.’
But Daily Mail Sport understands that the investigation turned up nothing more damning than beer drinking, confirming the suspicion among the England hierarchy that anything serious would have been reported immediately, not delayed until after the Ashes had been lost.
Key spoke to those who had been drafted in to provide extra security for the long-planned trip up Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in case some of the players peeled away from the main group to visit another bar or a nightclub, but learned that no such interventions had been necessary. One senior security official said reports of a stag-do vibe had been wide of the mark.
The ECB have been guarded about their investigation because of fears that another Duckett-style incident might emerge in the meantime and go viral. But the feeling is that, if such a video did exist, it would probably have been released by now.
Despite the fact that no formal action will now be taken against the players, there is an acceptance among some members of the management that aspects of this Ashes tour have been too loose.
It was asking for trouble to send the squad en masse to a tiny resort like Noosa, rather than encourage the players to disperse during what became a nine-day gap between the second and third Tests.
And there has been disquiet about some of the public pronouncements by the backroom staff, with head coach Brendon McCullum suggesting England had ‘over-prepared’ for the second Test at the Gabba, and assistant coach Marcus Trescothick claiming the dressing-room had not discussed the dangers of driving on the up after the second-day collapse in Perth.
Both McCullum and Key have since admitted that the players had not been prepared properly for the series opener on what remains the bounciest pitch in Australia.
In terms of the post-series fallout, much may still depend on the outcome of the fifth and final Test, starting on Sunday at Sydney, where England will hope to win a second game of an away Ashes for only the second time since 1986-87. Talk of sackings is premature.
Meanwhile, wicketkeeper Jamie Smith has been left out of next month’s white-ball tour of Sri Lanka and the subsequent T20 World Cup on the subcontinent, a decision that is partly to do with his workload, but also a reflection of a disappointing year in the two limited-overs formats.
Jofra Archer, who pulled out of the Ashes tour after the Adelaide Test because of a side strain, has been named in the provisional 15-man squad for the World Cup, along with Josh Tongue, who is yet to play a white-ball international but has been one of England’s success stories from the past few weeks in Australia.
