English Cricket Thread

[sussexpob]

Seems an incident between Saracen rugby players and the cricket side. Saracens have confirmed they are looking into it too

[Arthur Crabtree]

Night clubs open on a Monday?

Apart from breaking the curfew, no one seems to be saying what else they did.

After Stokes' previous history, maybe he's on something of a final warning.

But if he was sacked, the ECB could hardly make Brook skipper!

[sussexpob]

Apart from breaking the curfew, no one seems to be saying what else they did.

Telegraph/Mail reported that an argument sparked, leading to a rugbyman throwing a punch at Atkinson that missed and hit his escorting security detail, injuring him and leaving him with facial stitches. A melee then broke out.... Early indications suggest the England cricketers were not responsible for turning the disagreement violent, but I guess more details to come.

I guess some people will say they shouldnt have been there at 4am, blah blah. And I get that to a certain extent. But if this is a drunk person attacking one of the players, then the captain wading in to protect his team is almost honourable considering they are all huge rugby guys. And if they didn't start it, then they are the victims. We talk of cultures and what not, but drinking a few after a win is nothing bad in my eyes. If this is next week before the test, then yes I have a problem with it. But as I said on the match thread, if there is any time they can cut loose, its after a win with 10 days off. After Noosa maybe they should be aware of the optics a ittle more, and there is a apparently a curfew in place.....

Would a curfew apply here though? It was after the game, surely they are no longer on England duty at that point?

But let's see. Maybe more to this

[Durhamfootman]

Rehan takes 6-34 for the Lions as they finally take some SAA wickets

3-23 for Coles

[alfie]

Apart from breaking the curfew, no one seems to be saying what else they did.

Telegraph/Mail reported that an argument sparked, leading to a rugbyman throwing a punch at Atkinson that missed and hit his escorting security detail, injuring him and leaving him with facial stitches. A melee then broke out.... Early indications suggest the England cricketers were not responsible for turning the disagreement violent, but I guess more details to come.

I guess some people will say they shouldnt have been there at 4am, blah blah. And I get that to a certain extent. But if this is a drunk person attacking one of the players, then the captain wading in to protect his team is almost honourable considering they are all huge rugby guys. And if they didn't start it, then they are the victims. We talk of cultures and what not, but drinking a few after a win is nothing bad in my eyes. If this is next week before the test, then yes I have a problem with it. But as I said on the match thread, if there is any time they can cut loose, its after a win with 10 days off. After Noosa maybe they should be aware of the optics a ittle more, and there is a apparently a curfew in place.....

Would a curfew apply here though? It was after the game, surely they are no longer on England duty at that point?

But let's see. Maybe more to this

Blimey Sussex ... this is one of the rare occasions on which you and I are on the same page

Agree we have to wait for full details to come out. But for a curfew to still apply after a match with ages to the next seems to imply that players are to be basically constrained to "teenagers on probation" rules throughout the whole summer... rather a heavy condition of a contact ?

I guess all the past "incidents" are colouring general perceptions around this. And we know some in the media just love a chance to sink the boots into any sportsmen so not surprised at the rumpus. Would be ironic if this results in Brook (who sinned in NZ on the actual eve of a match ) being installed as skipper should Stokes quit or be fired. And not at all sure that would be a good thing for either Harry or the team in the short to medium term...but that is getting ahead of things and hopefully the nuclear option might yet be avoided ? We will see.

[Durhamfootman]

The report i saw about Stokes' involvement in a night club brawl also mentioned that he scored 12 runs in the first test.

The media narrative can, I think, be condensed down to drinking v performance. Had Stokes scored 112, then I suspect the number of runs would not have been mentioned in the reporting of the brawl

[sussexpob]

Blimey Sussex ... this is one of the rare occasions on which you and I are on the same page Agree we have to wait for full details to come out. But for a curfew to still apply after a match with ages to the next seems to imply that players are to be basically constrained to "teenagers on probation" rules throughout the whole summer... rather a heavy condition of a contact ?

Don't worry Alfie, still time to change that

I just think this so far comes across as another management issue. When Rob Key was locked in the basement of the MCG doing his 2 hour debrief about what had gone wrong in Noosa, he indicated this was all cricket culture, and that it was hard/impossible to tackle, which was a de facto defence/excusing of all the boozing the team did. And then we come back to this incident, and they announced the two players involved were being punished and the Regulator was summed before any of the details of what happened came out, which made the issue instantly feel like they had done something serious.

Isn't this all common sense? Drinking 4 days consecutively after Perth should never have been allowed to happen. They never should have gone to Noosa and boozed up. Harry Brook should never captain England again after he was drinking 6 hours before the toss of a ODI.... But on the same yardstick, being attacked in a bar is not remotely anything you need to answer for (assuming this is true, and nothing in the press is countering this so far). Celebrating after a hard test match win is nothing to be concerned about. We aren't comparing like for like, punishing someone with days off celebrating a win, and Ben Duckett being found on a street drunk and incapable a coupe of days before a test match after days of hard drinking.... not the same.

If they have seriously done nothing but defend themselves from a 25 stone, 6ft 5in rugby player, then leave them be. Let's get on with it. There is nothing to see here at all.....