{"id":360383,"date":"2026-01-09T06:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T06:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/360383\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T06:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T06:15:17","slug":"steve-smith-invites-england-for-post-series-drink-18-months-after-lords-drama-brendon-mccullum-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/360383\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Smith invites England for post-series drink 18 months after Lord’s drama, Brendon McCullum comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Smith<\/a> has confirmed England would join them for a post-series drink, more than two years removed from when tensions hit an all-time high between the Ashes<\/a> rivals.<\/p>\n

During a fiery 2023 series, things reached boiling point at Lord’s when Jonny Bairstow was stumped by Alex Carey<\/a>, leading to increased hostility on and off the field.<\/p>\n

At the time, England coach Brendon McCullum publicly stated his team would not be socialising with the Aussies<\/a> due to the controversial nature of Bairstow’s dismissal.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Brook’s pre-Ashes bouncer altercation revealed<\/a><\/p>\n

PLAYER RATINGS: ‘Whipping boy’ a rare flop as three Aussies shine<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Khawaja’s heartfelt message after ’emotional’ SCG farewell<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jonny Bairstow is stumped in the 2023 series.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“I can’t imagine we’ll be having a beer anytime soon, if that’s what you’re asking,” he told BBC’s Test Match Special during the last series.<\/p>\n

The comments caused quite a stir, with Australian counterpart Andrew McDonald admitting he was “disappointed” to hear McCullum’s stance.<\/p>\n

But in the wake of Australia’s 4-1 series victory on home soil this summer, things appear to be a little more rosey between the long-standing foes.<\/p>\n

While there were some spicy moments – Jofra Archer’s exchange with Steve Smith<\/a>, Ben Stokes telling Marnus Labuschagne to “shut the f–k up”<\/a> and even on the final day of the series, Brydon Carse firing up at Jake Weatherald<\/a> – Smith confirmed in his post-match press conference that the Aussies had extended an olive branch.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc speak to media after the Ashes series.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

“I’m not sure what the plan is tonight,” the skipper said.<\/p>\n

“We’ll go back in the sheds, I think the English will come in for a drink. We’ve invited them in – don’t laugh [pointing at journalists] – so hopefully they come in for a drink.<\/p>\n

“We’ll see where the night takes us.”<\/p>\n

Many of the players from both sides of the Ashes leger have played with or against one another for many years and to see them come together after a gruelling five-game series is exactly the way it should be, no matter what happens on the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Smith has confirmed England would join them for a post-series drink, more than two years removed from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-360383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}