{"id":792587,"date":"2026-07-11T02:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T02:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/792587\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T02:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T02:05:10","slug":"cricket-news-2026-rob-key-signs-off-on-new-alcohol-ban-for-england-players-booze-ban-set-to-crack-down-on-poor-drunken-behaviour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/792587\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket news 2026: Rob Key signs off on new alcohol ban for England players, booze ban set to crack down on poor drunken behaviour"},"content":{"rendered":"

England men\u2019s cricketers have been advised to avoid drinking alcohol on the day before and after matches under new behaviour guidelines, Britain\u2019s Daily Telegraph reported Friday.<\/p>\n

A midnight curfew was introduced following a woeful 4-1 Ashes series loss in Australia concluded in January, that was blighted by allegations of a drinking culture.<\/p>\n

\ufeffWatch England vs India T20 & ODI Series LIVE & EXCLUSIVE on Fox Cricket, available on Kayo | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There was further controversy during England\u2019s recent 2-1 series defeat at home to New Zealand.<\/p>\n

England captain Ben Stokes, who retired from international cricket after the series, and Gus Atkinson were both omitted from the second Test at the Oval for breaking the curfew at a London nightclub following England\u2019s win in the first Test.<\/p>\n

There were ambiguities around the curfew, however, amid suggestions some England players, including Atkinson — who lives in London — did not think it applied once a game was over.<\/p>\n

But the Telegraph reported that in the light of that incident the players had been issued with new guidance confirming the midnight curfew is in place on every day of a series at home or on tour.<\/p>\n

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It also recommends no alcohol be consumed on the day immediately before, during or the day immediately after a match.<\/p>\n

As well as rules that players cannot appear under the influence of alcohol in public, or post on social media about any \u201calcohol-related material or activities\u201d, and players must inform the team management or security if they are out of the hotel after 10pm, including changes of plan.<\/p>\n

But the head coach and director of cricket, posts currently held by Brendon McCullum and Rob Key respectively, do have the discretion to relax the recommendations as they see fit.<\/p>\n

That would enable players the freedom to celebrate a win or maintain traditions such as an end-of-series drink with the opposition at the end of an Ashes series.<\/p>\n

The guidelines apply only to the England senior men\u2019s teams — England women do not have formal rules on alcohol.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England men\u2019s cricketers have been advised to avoid drinking alcohol on the day before and after matches under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-792587","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\/792587","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=792587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}