England captain Joe Root was seen at the crack of dawn at a bar in Hobart after England's Ashes defeat
(Picture: Melbourne Age)Furious England management are investigating why an incident featuring Joe Root, James Anderson and Tasmanian police was filmed — seemingly by assistant coach Graham Thorpe — then leaked to the Australian media.
Footage emerged in Australia today of England captain Root, legendary bowler Anderson and a number of their Australian counterparts — Nathan Lyon, Travis Head and Alex Carey — drinking together after the sun had come up on Monday, the morning after the Ashes series concluded in Hobart.
Other players had been with them until a short while before, but had returned to their hotel rooms. It is standard procedure for the two teams to get together for a drink at the conclusion of a long series, and in this case that happened back at the team hotel, rather than Bellerive Oval’s changing rooms because of the day-night match’s late finish. England are due to fly home from Australia after their Ashes humbling.
Australian law enforcement is infamously officious and Tasmanian police attended a terrace on the fourth floor of the Crowne Plaza, the hotel the teams shared in Hobart, after a noise complaint from a local resident.
The ECB and Cricket Australia appear comfortable with the actions of their players — both in drinking and following the police’s orders to go to bed — but are incensed that the incident was filmed and that the footage has then entered the public domain.
That will be the centre of the ECB’s investigation, rather than the drinking itself, and there appears no prospect of the players being sanctioned over the incident.
This is where Thorpe comes into the equation. It appears to be the 52-year-old, who was put in charge of the England squad when Chris Silverwood was struck down by Covid for the Sydney Test this month, who is the filmer of the footage. He does not appear on camera, but his voice is heard listing the players’ names as the camera pans round, before he adds in slurred tones: “Just video this, just for the lawyers.”
As a police officer says “too loud”, Lyon is heard saying: “No worries, we can go.” A statement from Tasmania Police said they attended the scene because of “intoxicated individuals”, but confirmed no further action would be taken.
The ECB also released a statement: “During the early hours of Monday morning, members of the England and Australia men’s teams shared a drink in the team areas of the hotel in Hobart.
“The hotel management received a noise complaint by, and as is commonplace in Australia, the local police attended the scene. When asked to leave by hotel management and the Tasmanian police, the players and management in question left and returned to their respective hotel rooms. The England party have apologised for any inconvenience caused.
“The ECB will investigate further. Until such times, we will make no further comment.”
The emergence of the footage comes at a very bad time for the ECB, at the end of a dreadful tour that they lost 4-0 while struggling to uphold fully professional standards among both players and coaching staff. They are also desperate to clean up the game’s image in the wake of damaging scandals in recent years, from Ben Stokes’s Bristol court case to allegations of racism in Yorkshire and the wider game.
While the wild nights out of old have been limited by the need to be Covid safe to keep the series running, drinking was a feature of the tour build-up in Brisbane. Some players, notably Ollie Robinson, who has been publicly criticised by coaching staff including Silverwood, have struggled for match fitness due to poor conditioning.
Silverwood is under pressure for his job, as Ashley Giles, the managing director of cricket, compiles a report into the tour for his predecessor Andrew Strauss to review. Giles could also lose his job after the team’s abject performance. So, too, Thorpe, the 100-cap Test batter, whose main responsibility now is England’s batters.
Given they failed to reach 300 once in 10 innings in Australia and a number of youngsters are not improving, it seems unlikely that he will be in post much longer. He was interviewed recently, alongside eight others, for the vacant post of Middlesex head coach.
CA are equally furious as to how the footage was leaked. Their players continued their celebrations on Monday with a visit to Hobart’s museum MONA and a local pub, where players, including Head and Steve Smith, were filmed drunkenly singing with members of England’s Barmy Army.
