{"id":368686,"date":"2025-12-24T10:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T10:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/368686\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T10:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T10:47:13","slug":"england-captain-ben-stokes-addresses-fallout-from-boozy-noosa-trip-with-emotional-pledge-to-teammates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/368686\/","title":{"rendered":"England captain Ben Stokes addresses fallout from boozy Noosa trip with emotional pledge to teammates"},"content":{"rendered":"

England captain Ben Stokes has leapt to the defence of his teammates after their disastrous Ashes<\/a> tour hit a new low.<\/p>\n

Officials were already investigating claims of excessive drinking on the Noosa trip between the second and third Test before a video of Ben Duckett appearing to be drunk went viral on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Ben Duckett video sparks investigation.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

The ECB were forced to release a statement<\/a> saying they are looking into the video, which is yet to be verified, but has been widely circulated.<\/p>\n

It is another problem for a disastrous trip. England are 3-0 down going into the Boxing Day Test and cannot win the series.<\/p>\n

Fronting the media for the first time since the drinking claims surfaced, Stokes launched an emotional plea in support of his teammates.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t name anyone in particular, and didn\u2019t reference the social media video, but his main concern was clear.<\/p>\n

\"AA video of Duckett quickly went viral on social media. Credit: X<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m aware of the reports and everything that\u2019s circling right now,\u201d he said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy main concern is my players and how I handle this moment right now is the most important thing to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe welfare of everyone in there and probably some certain individuals as well is the most important thing to me right now as England captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis kind of stuff is very, I don\u2019t know if close to me is the right wording, but something that I have first-hand experience of how it can affect people.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd as I said, my role as England captain is to protect my players as much as I possibly can.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a goal still to try and achieve out here on this trip. It\u2019s not gone anywhere near to plan whatsoever.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve still got two games of cricket to play. We\u2019ve still got a lot of efforts and energies to put in in the remainder of this tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking after my players is one of the main things that I need to get out of this because we need to go out there and win two games of cricket.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know how this kind of stuff can affect people and as I said, I will always protect my players as much as I possibly can.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight here right now, that is my main job as England captain, is to ensure that they know that they have my backing because the most important thing to me, sitting here right now, is a group of players who I can get into a best possible state to go out there and try and perform for this country and the remainder of this trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stokes was pressed further on whether players did anything wrong in Noosa, but quickly shut it down and pledged his support to his teammates again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just answered everything there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Stokes added that \u201cit\u2019s never a nice place to be\u201d when not only the media, but also social media are \u201cjust piling on top of you\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very tough place to be in as an individual,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an individual when you know you\u2019ve got the support of the people who are leaders, it\u2019s very good to know you\u2019ve got that support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will always try my best to look after everyone in this group.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the series is over for England, Stokes said they still have a \u201chell of a lot to play for\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very determined to leave Australia with something positive to look back on and we\u2019ve got an opportunity here with these two games coming up still to play that we can still sort of do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, England have made two changes for the fourth Test.<\/p>\n

Jofra Archer will miss the remainder of the series with a side strain and has been replaced by Gus Atkinson, while Ollie Hope has been axed in favour of Jacob Bethell.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Fresh Ashes drama as video of star\u2019s boozy night goes viral<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia coach makes telling admission on Cameron Green<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England captain Ben Stokes has leapt to the defence of his teammates after their disastrous Ashes tour hit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,1625,3863,588,85,33383],"class_list":{"0":"post-368686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-lifestyle","12":"tag-sponsored-content","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-the-ashes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}