Sport360 duo Ajit Vijaykumar and Stuart Appleby argue whether the Ben Duckett story has been blown out of proportion, in our Monday debate.
The 23-year-old has been fined and will play no further part in the remaining matches for the England Lions in Australia following the batsman’s bar prank in Perth.
Duckett, 23, poured beer over England Test star James Anderson and the Lions opener was left out of the English a development team’s two-day match against cricket Australia on Saturday.
Dousing England’s all-time leading wicket-taker in the late-night incident will earn Duckett a reported £1500 ($2000) fine and a final warning over his conduct.
The incident occurred late on Thursday when the Ashes tourists returned to the bar in which Jonny Bairstow delivered his ‘head-butt’ greeting to Australia opener Cameron Bancroft at the start of their tour.
The England and Wales cricket Board confirmed Duckett’s punishment in a brief statement on Sunday.
Here’s the verdict of our two writers:
YES – AJIT SAYS IT HAS BEEN BLOWN OUT OF PROPORTION:
Firstly let me make one thing clear – what Ben Duckett did was completely wrong and he deserves to be axed from the England Lions team. Pouring a drink over a team-mate who is in the middle of an Ashes tour that is quickly turning into a disaster is unacceptable.
Especially since it was the third in a series of events that has now resulted in England players being labelled as having ‘alcohol-related issues’.
The question here is not about Duckett’s immediate career but the fate of the England team on this tour Down Under. England were staring down the barrel even before the series started following Ben Stokes’ Bristol brawl and subsequent unavailability for Ashes selection.
Then we had the Jonny Bairstow-Cameron Bancroft greeting/head-butt incident in a Perth bar which also became the venue for the Duckett-James Anderson fracas. While there is no doubt Duckett showed poor judgment while landing himself in a situation where he ended up spilling drinks over a senior Test player, the England management could have been more discreet about the incident.
Let’s look at the facts in isolation. An incident happened between two members of the England contingent. It was not like the Stokes saga where a player was caught on video getting into a brawl on the streets. Nor was it similar to the Bairstow incident which involved a player from the opposition camp.
The Duckett issue was an internal matter which could have been resolved in-house. Coach Trevor Bayliss’ reaction after the latest incident and the decision by the England management to be forthright has resulted in England getting an unflattering label before the critical third Test in Perth. They already had two strikes in the eyes of the public and a merciless opposition over personnel behaviour.
They did not need a third one. England have done the correct thing but it wasn’t the smartest decision. They should have tried to finish the Ashes without any further damage to their reputation.
Keeping the fire under control should be the priority. An incident between team-mates can always be sorted out later.
Duckett received his first Test cap in Bangladesh last year.
NO – STUART SAYS IT HASN’T
This shambolic Ashes tour is the gift which just keeps on giving if you’re a member of the media covering England’s plight Down Under.
If being 2-0 down in the series wasn’t enough, with a whitewash now a real possibility, the tourists have simply made a mockery of themselves through a real lack of common sense.
An Englishman walks into a bar, yes you’ve heard the joke before. And it has to make you laugh that the incident between Ben Duckett and James Anderson happened in the same Perth establishment where Jonny Bairstow had headbutted Australia’s Cameron Bancroft just a few weeks earlier.
It takes an element of stupidity to a) go back to the same venue and b) spark a similar conflict to the one before – with potentially more people around watching this time.
Let’s not forget the two players are international team-mates. A certain amount of what goes on on tour can get swept under the carpet. And if England were 2-0 up in the Ashes then these stories wouldn’t have caused as many headlines.
Cricketers do need downtime on a long tour; just something to break-up the constant humdrum of travel, hotel, practice, match and then repeat.
Team nights out do build chemistry and can help with morale but given the much-publicised Ben Stokes episode, this tour was different. England players were told clearly that they had to be on their best behaviour in Australia.
It’s a different era now for cricketers. Gone are the days when you could be up to no good and no-one would find out, especially with camera phones everywhere.
It’s down to the players to act more professionally in a game that has grown with technology and sports science. It just seems like England are still stuck in the past.
As such, the players involved – only a select few I should add – have deservedly been hung out to dry by the media.
The England hierarchy now really need to revisit team discipline. Curfews and warnings don’t seem to have worked but at the end of the day players need to take more responsibility for their actions.
