England are 0-3 down in the five-Test Ashes series against Australia down under.
After losing the third Test by 82 runs in Adelaide, England has now lost four straight Ashes series in Australia.
Before the third test, the England team had a mid-series break and traveled to the vacation destination of Noosa for four days. After rumors surfaced claiming that players had engaged in excessive drinking during the trip, the break—which was harshly criticized by several Australian experts—came under scrutiny.
Rob Key, the managing director of England, has emphasized that excessive alcohol use is inappropriate behavior for an international cricket team and has promised that the problem will be addressed in light of the accusations. He insisted, nevertheless, that preliminary assessments indicated the players behaved properly on the journey.
“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. 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 failure not to look into what happened there. But from everything that I’ve heard so far, they were very well behaved,” Key was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.
Key added that while he is not completely opposed to the presence of alcohol in team culture, completely irresponsible behavior would be unacceptable.
“I’ve read what’s been written in the last day or so, and if it goes into a situation where they’re drinking heavily and it becomes a stag do, that sort of thing is completely unacceptable. I’m not a drinker. I think a drinking culture doesn’t help anyone in any situation whatsoever,” he said.
“I have no issue with the Noosa trip if it was about getting away, putting your phone aside, downing tools, and going to the beach. Everything that I’ve heard so far is that they sat down, had lunch, had dinner, didn’t go out late, and had the odd drink. I don’t mind that. If it goes beyond that, then that becomes an issue as far as I’m concerned,” Key added.
Key also stated that team management had previously cautioned Jacob Bethell and Harry Brook ahead of the series when video surfaced of them drinking at a pub on the eve of England's third ODI in New Zealand.
He described the incident as a "wake-up call" about the level of scrutiny the squad will endure in Australia, denying that England had misjudged it.
“I don’t mind players having a glass of wine over dinner. Anything more than that, I think, is really quite ridiculous. There wasn’t any formal action taken. I didn’t feel that it was worthy of formal warnings, but it was probably worthy of informal ones,” he explained.
England had last won a Test in Australia in 2011, when they had retained the Ashes with a 3-1 series win down under, with Andrew Strauss as captain. Since then, England has played 18 Test matches in Australia, losing 16 of them, while two ended in rain-affected draws.