{"id":404400,"date":"2026-01-10T15:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T15:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/404400\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T15:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T15:24:13","slug":"michael-vaughan-says-england-handled-harry-brook-fracas-poorly-calls-for-leadership-changes-what-went-wrong-scathing-assessment-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/404400\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Vaughan says England handled Harry Brook fracas poorly, calls for leadership changes, what went wrong, scathing assessment, reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cricket legend Michael Vaughan has launched a scathing assessment over England\u2019s handling of Harry Brook\u2019s ugly pre-Ashes fracas in New Zealand.<\/a><\/p>\n

Brook was placed on a \u201cfinal warning\u201d just before the Ashes when involved in a skirmish with a nightclub bouncer before an ODI against NZ. He was fined, but wasn\u2019t suspended by the ECB. <\/p>\n

During the Stars-Renegades BBL clash, Vaughan was asked about the incident and the subsequent handling of the England vice-captain\u2019s actions. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe ECB pushed it under the carpet,\u201d Vaughan told Fox Cricket. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey said they threw the kitchen sink in with a fine, but for it to have come out just a couple of days ago on the back of a poor Ashes series where performance levels have been indifferent, the loose nature of the preparation has been a big question mark about the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow Fox Cricket commentator Mark Howard suggested England didn\u2019t disclose the Brook incident and sanction to avoid derailing the start of their Ashes campaign.<\/p>\n

Vaughan responded: \u201cMy experience from these kinds (of incidents) is you\u2019ve got to hit the nail on the head at the time it happens, because once it comes out afterwards, \u2018why did they brush it under the carpet\u2019?<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the England captain was able to go out the night before have a fracas with a bouncer then still play \u2013 probably on the same day. That can\u2019t be right \u2026 He should\u2019ve been suspended for that game. Then you deal with it there and then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vaughan said the lack of transparency around Brook brought other aspects of England\u2019s tour into question, especially the boozy trip to Queensland hotspot Noosa following the second Ashes Test at the Gabba.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no problems with Noosa, but I do have a problem with Noosa on the back of them hiding something in New Zealand that they didn\u2019t tell us about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo clearly there\u2019s a lot of conversations to be had and understanding of what is right and what is wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I see things like that and hear things like that, I always go: \u2018What don\u2019t we know?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019ll be a lot of conversations over the next week or two about the leadership group \u2013 and that goes right to the highest level, because the CEO and the chairman of the ECB would\u2019ve known about that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get your point in terms of trying to hide it from the Ashes because you don\u2019t want it to derail you, but you could probably argue it did derail the Ashes \u2013 because it wasn\u2019t sorted there and then and players had this loose nature for a good few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conversation then shifted to whether the leadership group, including coach Brendon McCullum, captain Ben Stokes and Brook had to come under fire for what went down.<\/p>\n

In Vaughan\u2019s eyes, Brook wasn\u2019t dealt with harshly enough, even suggesting changes should be made to the leadership group going forward when pressed by Howard.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you think the current leadership group should continue?\u201d Howard asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they should continue after the Harry Brook situation,\u201d Vaughan responded.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBecause someone isn\u2019t going to be made accountable for losing another Ashes series and then on the back of what we now know, what makes you accountable? <\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone has to be made accountable for so many mistakes, preparation and the tactics for the tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s (the team culture) been the same for two or three years now \u2013 whether they like it or not, that\u2019s been the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite a loose operation and there\u2019s not been consequence for performance or shots that have been played throughout the last two or three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s not a big enough consequence for me when the captain (Brook) does what he does the night before a game. I\u2019m sure the leadership group will look back at that and think \u2018we should\u2019ve dealt with that differently\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The panel continued to discuss McCullum\u2019s job security, with Vaughan turning his attention to the on-field results of the \u2018Bazball\u2019 era.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the four years McCullum has been in charge, there\u2019s a good argument that he\u2019s made them a much better cricket team than the cricket team he took over from,\u201d Howard said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah at the start but they haven\u2019t won a five match Test series. They\u2019ve drawn at home to India, home to Australia 2-2 and then they lost 4-1 to India away and 4-1 to Australia (this past series),\u201d Vaughan explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first 18 months we surprised so many teams, no one knew how to play against us. The next 18 months, the good teams worked us out. The England side have not adapted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m more than happy if Brendon McCullum\u2019s willing to accept that change is required. We\u2019ve been far too loose for too long.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cricket legend Michael Vaughan has launched a scathing assessment over England\u2019s handling of Harry Brook\u2019s ugly pre-Ashes fracas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[1724,64,63,689,2129,14675,740,56317,152418,9564,214567,1209,147268,214564,3255,214566,19096,117279,122620,17055,160418,1736,214561,677,214565,701,17069,214563,12540,85,5338,214562],"class_list":["post-404400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-ben-stokes","tag-brendon-mccullum","tag-cricket","tag-cricket-legend","tag-cricket-team","tag-european-central-bank","tag-hits-roofcricket","tag-india","tag-kitchen-sink","tag-leadership-changes","tag-leadership-group","tag-loose-nature","tag-mark-howard","tag-melbourne-stars","tag-michael-hussey","tag-michael-vaughan","tag-michael-vaughn","tag-new-zealand","tag-nightclub-bouncer","tag-oceania","tag-pre-ashes-bouncer-altercation","tag-queensland","tag-sam-konstas","tag-scathing-assessment","tag-southern-asia","tag-sports","tag-the-gabba","tag-ugly-pre-ashes-fracas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404400","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=404400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}