England players look set for a curfew amid reports of excessive drinking sessions and wild behaviour during their disastrous Ashes campaign.
The Brendan McCullum-Ben Stokes era disbanded the previous midnight curfew introduced by Andrew Strauss following the infamous Jonny Bairstow headbutt on Australia batsman Cameron Bancroft.
But given the numerous reports of off-field behaviour through the Ashes, that move may have been an error.
While McCullum has denied that the team have an unhealthy drinking culture, a handful of players reportedly ignored Stokes’ directive not to go out after the Adelaide defeat which saw Australia retain the urn.
England have an immediate turnaround from their Ashes embarrassment with the squad set to hit the road for seven weeks for a white-ball series against Sri Lanka and the T20 World Cup that follows.
And according to reports in the UK, rules are set to be introduced to protect team culture. This could include drinking limitations and curfews.
The ECB is also conducting an investigation into the entire series with reports of heavy drinking sessions in Perth as well as vision emerging of Ben Duckett looking bewildered during the team’s break in Noosa.
After the 4-1 defeat news also broke that Harry Brook had been fined $60,000 following an altercation with a bouncer in Wellington before the team flew to Australia.
Safe to say the England team did not shower themselves in any kind of glory on or off the field in recent months.
“Over the course of my career – 15 years – I saw it all,” Chad Townsend said on SEN Breakfast. “Bans form the coach, bans from the captain, the leadership group. All sorts of bans. Alcohol, curfews, do they work? I think they do.
“This stuff only happens when you lose. if England had of won, is this a story? The old saying goes; winning cures everything.
“When you lose, everyone wants a reason as to why.
“The average age of an NRL player is 24, but then you have the veterans that are in their thirties, with kids, being told what they have to do. Some people are fine being told what to do then others don’t like being told how they should live their life.
“Player driven drinking bans or anything player driven is more powerful than when it comes from the coach.
“There are times that if you’re heading into finals and the leadership team say we have to make sacrifices to get the best out of each other, they might limit what we drink, we might not go out, we might have a total ban, it is 100 more impactful from the group.”