{"id":739007,"date":"2026-06-15T23:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T23:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/739007\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T23:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T23:58:10","slug":"brendon-mccullum-worried-about-england-captain-ben-stokes-after-nightclub-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/739007\/","title":{"rendered":"Brendon McCullum worried about England captain Ben Stokes after nightclub incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

England coach Brendon McCullum says he was angry but also concerned about Ben Stokes after the nightclub incident involving his captain and fast bowler Gus Atkinson, which led to their omission from the second Test against New Zealand at The Oval.<\/p>\n

Stokes and Atkinson breached the team’s midnight curfew and were reportedly present when an England security staff member was involved in an incident with a Saracens rugby player.<\/p>\n

“You go from \u200cbeing bewildered, to angry, to gutted,” McCullum said.<\/p>\n

“Quickly, through talking to Ben and Gus, my emotion turned to worry and concern, for Ben in particular.”<\/p>\n

The episode is the latest \u200coff-field issue for England after vice-captain Harry Brook was punched by a bouncer outside a \u2060nightclub in Wellington<\/a> in October, while videos during the Ashes showed \u200cplayers drinking during a Noosa break.<\/p>\n

Bazball lives on after review of disastrous Ashes<\/a><\/p>\n

The England and Wales Cricket Board has completed its review into a disastrous tour of Australia and New Zealand, with coach Brendon McCullum, captain Ben Stokes and men’s team director Rob Key all keeping their jobs.<\/p>\n

Although managing director Rob Key downplayed talk of a “drinking culture” in March, the ECB introduced a strict midnight curfew.<\/p>\n

McCullum said he was in constant touch with Stokes to ensure his wellbeing, and decisions regarding his captaincy would be made at a later stage.<\/p>\n

“Our concern is with Ben, our concern is \u200chandling that situation, making sure we look after him, that he feels supported by us and in communication with us,” McCullum said.<\/p>\n

“We need to make sure we look \u2060after him, rally around him, and in time \u200cwe’ll get on to those sorts \u200cof decisions.”<\/p>\n

Stokes was involved in an incident outside a Bristol nightclub in 2017, but was later cleared \u200cof charges. He took a break from cricket in 2021 to prioritise his mental wellbeing.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben Stokes with Gus Atkinson. (Getty Images: Gareth Copley)<\/p>\n

“Whatever he is working through at the moment, it will be \u200cbecause Ben thinks that’s right for \u2060dealing with what he’s feeling at the moment,” McCullum said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve always had the best intentions of English cricket at the core of what we are trying to achieve and the decisions we’re trying to make.”<\/p>\n

“Right now, I have a lot of \u2060respect, a lot of care for Ben, and I’m doing what I can to support him.”<\/p>\n

Joe Root will captain a \u200creshuffled side, with \u200cspeedster Jofra Archer returning, and batter Jordan Cox and fast bowler Sonny Baker making their debuts as England lead the three-match series 1-0.<\/p>\n

The second Test begins on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England coach Brendon McCullum says he was angry but also concerned about Ben Stokes after the nightclub incident…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,2129,14675,740,1208,24161,1736,85,231],"class_list":["post-739007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ben-stokes","tag-brendon-mccullum","tag-cricket","tag-england","tag-gus-atkinson","tag-new-zealand","tag-sports","tag-test"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739007","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=739007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}