The press conference of the England cricket captain two days out from the start of a Test match against Pakistan doesn’t normally garner huge interest: perhaps a spot of team news, early analysis of the pitch, a chat about the weather. But as Joe Root walked into the ECB offices at Lord’s on Tuesday afternoon, trailed by a couple of scampering press officers, he was met by a room teeming with reporters and TV cameras.
He knew what was coming, and didn’t hold back. “If I’m being brutally honest, I’m really hacked off,” Root began. His return to the England captaincy had begun with one of their most dominant victories in years, beating Pakistan by an innings and 103 runs at Headingley. But the line of questioning here was almost exclusively about the video which surfaced on Sunday showing bowler Brydon Carse handcuffed by police, the latest in a string of drunken incidents that suggest England might have a problem.
