Brendon McCullum has dismissed criticism of England’s behaviour as “out of
order” and hit out at the perception that he runs a “loose ship”.News emerged at the end of the 4-1 Ashes defeat – where England faced accusations of a “drinking culture” – that white-ball captain Brook had been involved in an altercation with a nightclub bouncer on the preceding tour of New Zealand.
Brook began the tour of Sri Lanka by apologising and insisted that he was out alone, but then had to release a statement to admit that was not true after reports that Jacob Bethell and Josh Tongue were also fined.
In an extensive interview after the T20 series win against Sri Lanka, head coach McCullum said: “I don’t think there was any need to release the details until it was obviously found in the media.”The boys have made a mistake. They’re not the first ones that have ever done it, they won’t be the last ones.
“The process was done internally at the ECB, which we were all a part of. We’ve dealt with the processes of the last little while, I thought, pretty well. They’ve been severely reprimanded.
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Brendon McCullum says claims he runs a ‘loose ship’ with England “couldn’t be further from the truth”
“And, to be honest, I find it quite annoying that we keep going on and on about it.
“Brooky obviously was trying to protect other players when he made that comment. I wasn’t aware of that comment until I was told because I don’t read the media personally. Harry’s trying to look after his mates.”He is a strong leader, he’s a young man but he’s got a very good head on his shoulders.”I know people will say he’s not that clever. I couldn’t disagree with that more. He wears his intelligence lightly and he’s someone that they play for in their dressing room.”‘I feel a lot of it was completely out of order’The England and Wales Cricket Board is investigating the winter, with a focus on behaviour, after a string of incidents – including Ben Duckett being filmed seemingly worse for wear during a Noosa trip which was accused of resembling a “stag do”.”I don’t think the boys went overboard at all,” McCullum added. “In fact, I thought a lot of the pile-on for it was completely out of line.”Noosa is where people go to retire. There was a reason why we chose Noosa. It was being made out as this big stag do place.
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2026-02-04 10:05:00
