{"id":605157,"date":"2026-04-14T00:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605157\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T00:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:26:08","slug":"wisden-editor-gives-scathing-assessment-of-england-ashes-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605157\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisden editor gives scathing assessment of England Ashes defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

England were “feckless, reckless and legless” on their dismal Ashes tour of Australia, according to the editor of the prestigious Wisden Almanack.<\/p>\n

Ben Stokes’ side were beaten 4-1 on a trip dogged by poor on-field performances, sloppy preparation and allegations of a drinking culture.<\/p>\n

Lawrence Booth delivered his damning assessment in the influential editor’s notes of the 163rd edition of the Almanack, which is published on Thursday.<\/p>\n

“England arrived for the Ashes hell-bent on making history, and ended up being laughed out of town,” wrote Booth.<\/p>\n

“England were feckless, reckless and legless. A trip supposed to define an era, described by Brendon McCullum as ‘the biggest series of all our lives’, descended into dilettantism. What a waste. What a shame.<\/p>\n

“In the game’s long history, it is hard to think of a privilege so carelessly squandered, a chance so blithely spurned. A successful assault on Australia requires blood, sweat and tears, not dribs, drabs and vibes.”<\/p>\n

England Test captain Stokes, head coach Brendon McCullum and director of cricket Rob Key remained in their posts<\/a> following a review of the Ashes series conducted by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).<\/p>\n

Booth said England should have come clean much sooner about an incident involving white-ball captain Harry Brook on the tour of New Zealand that preceded the Ashes.<\/p>\n

Brook was punched by a nightclub bouncer of the eve of a one-day international in Wellington in October, but the altercation did not come to light until it was reported in the Telegraph after the fifth Ashes Test in January.<\/p>\n

“Three weeks before the Perth Test was plenty of time to hold Brook to account in public, and remind the players that they had a (well-paid) job to do in Australia,” said Booth.<\/p>\n

“Four years after England’s previous Ashes misadventure had sparked headlines about a drinking culture, it was all depressingly familiar.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England were “feckless, reckless and legless” on their dismal Ashes tour of Australia, according to the editor of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-605157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605157","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=605157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}