Ex-England spinner Graeme Swann has come in support of England captain Ben Stokes, who, along with pacer Gus Atkinson, is under investigation for breaking the ECB's England team curfew rule. This happened after England won the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s.
The celebrations following England's victory in the Lord's Test are the root of the problem. After CCTV from a nightclub appeared to show Stokes and Atkinson engaged in an argument with Saracens academy rugby player Totoa Auvaa, the two became the focus of attention.
Questions about player behavior and potential repercussions for two important members of England's Test squad were promptly raised by the incident. Following England's decision to exclude Stokes and Gus Atkinson from the squad for the second Test match against New Zealand, the controversy has grown more heated.
Graeme Swann, a former England spinner, has now offered his opinion on the dispute. Swann said that he had mixed opinions about the incident's aftermath, but he made it plain that he has never supported curfews in professional cricket.
"My thoughts are very mixed on this. The fact that there's a curfew put in place is... I'm a former player. You will never, ever convince me that a curfew is a good thing. It's ridiculous that they even did that in the first place.
I understand why they did it, because they're trying to paint a good picture to other people, to a PR side of it. That doesn't work. I think they'll learn a lesson, the ECB, from that, that we shouldn't have done that at all," Swann told PTI.
Swann believes that rather than enforcing such general limitations, the ECB would have been better served by talking about team culture.
"We should have come out, sat down, and actually talked about what we're going to do as a culture and made sure we're moving forward. But just to put a midnight curfew after winning a Test match, the day you're not allowed to celebrate winning a Test match for your country is a dark day," he said.
Swann even went so far as to support Stokes, claiming the England captain had done nothing wrong and focusing his anger on the ECB's curfew policy.
"I don't think Ben Stokes has done anything wrong here, other than go against a rule that shouldn't have been implemented in the first place. I don't know the story of what happened. No one knows the story. So, I'm not even going to comment on that. As I say, he celebrated winning the Test match. I have no issue with that whatsoever. I do have a massive issue with the team curfew at midnight after winning a Test," Swann added.
"Before a Test, fine. You shouldn't drink before or during a game. As a professional athlete, you shouldn't be doing that. But that doesn't need writing down on a piece of paper for me,” he further stated.
Swann questioned the intentions of individuals who recorded and disseminated footage of England players because he was alarmed by the developing culture of surveillance surrounding professional athletes.
He also expresses annoyance at what he perceives as an increasing propensity to make players' private moments public, citing parallels with earlier disputes with Ben Duckett during the most recent Ashes.
"Think of it from another angle. Think of who recorded that and think of who sent it to a newspaper trying to make money. This is what happened to Ben Duckett in the winter (during the Ashes in Australia). Who recorded it and sent that? This is supposed to be an England fan, and they'll pretend.
They'll say, 'Oh, we're doing it because we love our country.' No, they're doing it to try to make money. The culture we live in at the moment: we're trying desperately to film someone doing it, knock them down, and put them in the newspaper. I think it's a sad time we live in. I really do,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Joe Root has been named the interim England Test captain as the ECB mulls what to do next with Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson.
(PTI inputs)
