England opener Ben Duckett‘s viral footage of being drunk sent waves of insecurity through the English dressing room. However, a former England captain, Michael Vaughan, has asked the ECB to prioritize broader concepts that are actually affecting England’s on-field performance rather than focusing on such minor incidents.
England have already lost the Ashes series, and the ECB and England management have been held responsible for the reckless attitude of the cricketers on show. On several occasions, the Noosa vacation of the English team has been blamed for the circumstances.
The England head coach Brendon McCullum and the skipper Ben Stokes have repeatedly explained that the Noosa vacation was always in plan and with such a huge break between the matches, the players needed to shift their focus away from the game and return afresh.
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Ben Duckett is feeling the pressure of the ECB’s fact-finding exercise
England’s rocky Ashes campaign continued to turn further uneven as Ben Duckett was seen heavily drunk in one of the viral videos from England’s Noosa vacation. Reports also claimed that many England players drank heavily during the break.
With the Boxing Day Test just around the corner, this was a very bad time for the video to come out in public. The England managing director, Rob Key, promised to look into the accusations, and Ben Duckett could probably be feeling the heat of the incident at this moment.
The England opener has also lacked form during this entire Australian tour. While Zak Crawley has shown sheer form at times, Duckett has failed to put on a single dominant innings.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan has come in support of Duckett and the English players with a tricky remark. He has turned the outrage towards something he considers the main reason for concern, that any player is sipping alcohol.
“I am not going to criticise England for what they got up to in Noosa. I criticise what they do on the cricket field, the way they play, and the way they prepare to play cricket.”
“I am not going to point the finger at a group of young people who have had a few beers on a couple of days off. I did exactly the same as them when I played for England, although I did at least know when it was time to go home, and that is probably what Ben Duckett needs to learn,” said Michael Vaughan in a column for the Telegraph.
“The game of cricket has created this drinking culture” – Ben Duckett
The former England skipper also claimed that singling out a single player misses the bigger point, because such behaviour of relaxation has been normalised over decades in the game of cricket.
“Duckett should not be reprimanded at all on the evidence we have seen, and neither should the other players, because it is a wider issue: the game of cricket has created this drinking culture.”
“England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa all have the same culture. You give a group of young people three or four days off to relax, and they’re going to something like this,” he concluded.
ALSO READ: Ben Stokes issues official statement on Ben Duckett drunk video as ECB disciplinary action looms
