The Ashes: Was drinking binge the reason behind England’s misery?

The fact that a Boxing Day Ashes Test at Melbourne will be a dead rubber is difficult to digest if you are a England fan – much as one may talk about ‘plenty to play for’ with the World Test Championship (WTC) points at stake. What has now added fuel to the fire are the reports of binge drinking by Ben Stokes’ men during a downtime between the second and third Test – turning the heat on them further.

It’s a no-brainer that any misstep in the losing camp is amplified in the media more often than not and England stars have a history of such transgressions. Remember the famous pedalo incident of Andrew Flintoff, the star allrounder and then vice-captain, in the middle of their campaign in 2007 ICC World Cup at St Lucia soon after their 5-0 whitewash in the Ashes?  Or the 2017-18 Ashes, which England lost 4-0 when wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow was alleged to have headbutted Australian batsman Cameron Bancroft.

This time around, BBC and other major news outlets reported that some members of the squad were drinking towards the end of their time in Brisbane where the Test ended inside four days – and then some more at a four-day trip to a sea resort of Noosa in Queensland. What’s more, a video posted on social media shows opener Ben Duckett slurring his words while speaking to a group of people as he attempts to find his way home. It is unclear when or where the footage was filmed and the ECB have said in a statement that they are “establishing the facts”. 

Duckett, meanwhile, has a history of crossing the line and was once dropped after pouring a drink over senior pace bowler James Anderson with him being later fined and issued with a final written warning. The domino effect of the way England’s campaign unravelled after a promising start in Perth suggests some punitive measures may be on the way, though England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) managing director Rob Key was at his diplomatic best during a chat with former captains Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain.

While defending the long planned break in Noosa (as the white ball players have a lengthy itinerary ahead of them), former England opener Key stated that there will be an investigation on reports that players had spent their time drinking. ‘’I’m not a drinker. Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol for an international cricket team is not something that I’d expect to see at any stage,’’ he added.

The moot question, however, is whether drinking per se were responsible for the shattering defeats or it was the failure to capitalise on the favourable sessions, lack of accountability which caused the visitors to lose the momentum. 

Anderson, who had been a part of four victorious Ashes campaigns during his time (2009, 2010-11, 2013 and 2015), feels it’s more about poor cricket rather than a drunken binge that was responsible. Admitting to having his share of drink even during a Test, the legend said in a signed column: ‘’The way I avoided scrutiny, I guess, was making sure my performance levels did not drop. You’ve got to make sure that either people don't know about what you’re doing because you are discreet or your performances remain faultless.

‘’If you don't perform well, then every single thing you've done or not done on the field is under scrutiny. You open those floodgates. When you see some of England’s dismissals in going 3-0 down in 11 days, they have been quite naive. And the bowling has been scattergun at times. We dropped a lot of catches,’’ Anderson argued.

 ‘’Compare it with Australian batsmen building partnerships and scoring hundreds, their bowlers being disciplined and their fielders claiming some absolute stunners - they’ve taken the half-chances as well as the regular chances,’’ he said.

 Point taken – and the only way for England is to strike back in the remaining two Tests over the New Year in Melbourne and Sydney. A 3-2 finish would sound far better than a 4-0 or clean sweep, what with Australia going into MCG with two of their bowling stalwarts Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon.

 Will England be game? We will know soon!