England Cricket Board’s (ECB) Managing Director of men’s cricket, Rob Key, has revealed that the over-drinking habits of England cricketers will be investigated. Reports have come out that the cricketers were involved in too much drinking during the beach-break in the ongoing Ashes tour, where England have already been drubbed 3-0 by Australia in only 11 days. The fourth Test will start in Melbourne on Friday.
The squad visited the resort town of Noosa on the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane between the second and third Tests, a long-planned part of the itinerary designed to help players relax and unwind on the long tour.
Key, who did not join the players in Noosa, said he had no problem with the break, but would not be happy if he found evidence of over-indulging.
According to a report from the BBC, some members of the squad had six days of drinking!
“If there are things where people are saying that our players went out and drank excessively, then of course we’ll be looking into that,” he said Tuesday in Melbourne, where the fourth Test begins Friday.
“Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol for an international cricket team is not something that I’d expect to see at any stage, and it would be a fault not to look into what happened there. From everything that I’ve heard so far, they actually were pretty well behaved. Very well behaved.”
He added, “We’ve got enough ways of finding out exactly what happened and everything that I’ve heard so far that they sat down, had lunch, had dinner, didn’t go out late, all of that, had the odd drink. I don’t mind that. If it goes past that, then that’s an issue as far as I’m concerned.”
