England’s Ashes tour has found a new way to leak oxygen, not through another batting collapse, but through a viral clip. A social-media video that appears to show opener Ben Duckett intoxicated during England’s mid-tour break in Noosa has triggered an ECB fact-finding exercise at the worst possible moment: with Australia 3-0 up and the series already gone.
Brendon McCullum chats with batsman Ben Duckett.(AFP)
The board has said it is establishing the facts, while England managing director Rob Key has promised to look into accusations that the Noosa downtime took on a ‘stag do’ feel, a line that has become the headline shorthand for the entire episode.
Vaughan’s take: Don’t moralise, fix the culture
Former England captain, Michael Vaughan, has now weighed in on the fallout in his Telegraph coloumn, steering the debate away from outrage and towards something that he considers more honest: the spot’s long-standing relationship with alcohol and the way tours are structured.
Reacting to the video, Vaughan wrote: “I am not going to criticise England for what they got up to in Noosa. I criticise what they do on the cricket field, the way they play, and the way they prepare to play cricket. I am not going to point the finger at a group of young people who have had a few beers on a couple of days off. I did exactly the same as them when I played for England, although I did at least know when it was time to go home, and that is probably what Ben Duckett needs to learn.”
It’s classic Vaughan: a defence with a barb hidden inside. He refuses to turn the incident in Noosa into a character trial, but still suggests Duckett’s real lesson is judgment, not drinking, knowing when the night is done.
Vaughan then widens the frame, arguing that singling out one player misses the bigger point, that elite cricket has normalised this as release-valve behaviour for decades.
“Duckett not be reprimanded at all on the evidence we have seen, and neither should the other players, because it is a wider issue: the game of cricket has created this drinking culture. England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa all have the same culture. You give a group of young people three or four days off to relax, and they’re going to something like this”, he added.
That argument lands in a tour context where England’s leadership has been careful to separate welfare from discipline. Ben Stokes, speaking ahead of the Boxing Day Test, has stressed player well-being amid the intensity of the scrutiny, while Key’s stance has been conditional: a break is fine, evidence of excess is not.