After a brief reprieve following the dominant Test victory last week against a timid Pakistan, once again talk of England and cricket is focused not on the game but on the behaviour of the people playing it. The England and Wales Cricket Board has reacted quickly to videos that emerged over the weekend showing Brydon Carse in handcuffs outside a Derby nightclub by dropping him for the second Test at Lord’s and referring the incident to the Cricket Regulator. This is a solid baseline, but it is clear that there is an issue with this group of players that isn’t being dealt with by this group of coaches and executives.
When I was coaching with England, early in our Ashes tour in 2017-18 there was an incident with Ben Duckett pouring a pint of beer over Jimmy Anderson. Andrew Strauss, who was the ECB’s director of England cricket, flew out and did a terrific job of addressing the squad and letting them know the boundaries of what would be considered acceptable behaviour.
