England white-ball skipper Harry Brook has been fortunate to be retained as the white-ball captain for the national side following an altercation with a bouncer in New Zealand. Brook has apologized to his teammates and the management and has pledged to regain their trust.
The England team has struggled with several blows in recent times. The greats of the game from the nation have been seen in a critical condition, reflecting acute indiscipline. Recently, on their tour to New Zealand and then the Ashes, the England players were piling up with drinking accusations.
Players like Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, and English white-ball captain and red-ball vice-captain Harry Brook were spotted drinking unstoppably alongside their teammates. A review was also done on the Noosa vacation of the team, but ECB director Rob Key cleared them of any case that needed explanation.
Harry Brook apologizes to England teammates and the ECB for his drunken act in NZ
Though the ECB has not punished its players very harshly for irregular activities despite them having severely affected the match results as well, the reputation of the English cricketers has surely been diminished in the public eye.
Harry Brook indulged in an altercation with a bouncer in a nightclub in New Zealand ahead of the final game in the ODI series and was fined £ 30,000 along with a final warning for his off-field actions. He also brought himself very close to being sacked from the captaincy of the England side.
“Obviously, I made a terrible mistake,” Harry Brook said. “Not only as a player, but as a captain. It’s very unprofessional and I should be leading from the front.
“I’ve learnt from my mistakes, I’ve reflected a lot on what’s happened, and I know it wasn’t the right thing to do. I want to say sorry to my teammates, to all the fans that travel far and wide to watch, spend a lot of money on coming out to watch us play cricket and supporting us, and to the ECB for putting them in a tricky situation, and it’ll never happen again. I’m extremely sorry,” said Harry Brook.
The England captain had said that he needed to regain the trust of his players and has hence started by apologising to them.
“I think I’ve got a little bit of work to do to try and regain the trust of the players. I said sorry to them yesterday. I felt like I needed to say sorry for my actions. It’s not acceptable as a player, but as a captain, it’s really not acceptable to do what I did in New Zealand. I’ll be the first person to say that. I hold my hands up,” Brook added.
Harry Brook felt lucky for not being sacked as England’s white-ball captain
Harry Brook had himself admitted the incident and reported it to the management midway through the game the next day. Brook, who as a youngster has been cited as one of England’s greatest players for the future, had the possibility of the role being snatched from him.
When asked whether he feels lucky to have retained the captaincy for England in the two white-ball formats, he replied, “Probably, yeah.”
“If I had been sacked, I’d have held my hands up and said: ‘Look, I’ve made a mistake’ and I’d have been perfectly fine with it, as long as I was still playing cricket for England. “I’m glad that I told them. Playing cricket for England was a childhood dream, so I’m glad that I told them and we’ve dealt with it,” he explained.
“No, there’s no drinking culture at all,” Harry Brook safeguards England’s honour
After the Noosa incident and the intoxicated English players in Australia, speculation was on the rise that England have a drinking culture within their cricket team.
“No, there’s no drinking culture at all,” Brook insisted. “As I said, everybody has the ability to say no. If you want a drink, if you don’t want a drink, you’re allowed to make that decision yourself,” Brook claimed.
He further continued saying that it was not just drinking in Australia. No player was just drinking all day, and every day, they went out, played golf, went to cafes, had coffees, and alongside had a few drinks as well. He also defended his actions, claiming that this is “what human beings do.”
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