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England’s white-ball captain Harry Brook has issued a public apology for becoming embroiled in a late-night incident in New Zealand just before the Ashes, admitting his actions “brought embarrassment to both myself and the England team”.
A matter of hours after England’s 4-1 defeat to Australia was confirmed in Sydney and shortly after ECB chief executive Richard Gould launched a formal review into the series – including into the behaviour of players – the growing sense of crisis around the team deepened.
The Daily Telegraph reported Brook, the limited-overs skipper and vice-captain of the Test side in Australia, was involved in a scuffle with a nightclub bouncer on 31 October. England lost an ODI to the Black Caps the next day, surrendering the series 3-0, with Brook scoring six. It is understood that Brook was fined £30,000 after reporting the incident to team management.
“I want to apologise for my actions. I fully accept that my behaviour was wrong and brought embarrassment to both myself and the England team,” he said in a personal statement. “Representing England is the greatest honour of all, which I take seriously and I am deeply sorry for letting down my teammates, coaches and supporters. I have reflected on the lessons it has taught me about responsibility, professionalism and the standards expected of those representing your country.
“I am determined to learn from this mistake and to rebuild trust through my future actions, both on and off the field. I apologise unreservedly and will work hard to ensure this does not happen again.”
The ECB followed up with its own acknowledgement of the episode, which is sure to crank up the scrutiny on the culture of the team. It read: “We are aware of this incident and it has been dealt with through a formal and confidential ECB disciplinary process. The player involved has apologised and acknowledged their conduct fell below expectations on this occasion.”
England have already faced intense criticism over their mid-series break on the beach in Noosa – spending four days on the coastal resort in a trip some onlookers likened to “a stag do”. Mobile phone footage of a seemingly intoxicated Ben Duckett involved in a tetchy late-night exchange with fans – one of who advised him to “get an Uber to the nets” – during the trip attracted plenty of attention and an investigation from England managing director Rob Key.
“Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol for an international cricket team is not something that I’d expect to see at any stage,” he said afterwards. “From everything that I’ve heard so far, they actually were pretty well behaved. Very well behaved.”
Key was also asked about the New Zealand tour, specifically unverified social media clips which purported to show Brook and Jacob Bethell out drinking on the night of 31 October. “I didn’t feel like that was worthy of formal warnings, but it was probably worthy of informal ones,” he said. “I think that was a bit of a wake-up call actually for what they’re going into [in Australia].”
