‘I’m not going to criticize them’: Former captain defends England players amid Noosa ‘drinking’ storm | Cricket News

England’s Ashes tour has been dogged by off-field controversy, but former captain Michael Vaughan has called for restraint, arguing that outrage over the team’s beach break in Noosa mid-series misses the bigger picture of cricket’s long-standing culture.Go beyond borders with our YouTube channel. REGISTER NOW!Captain Ben Stokes faced pointed questions on Wednesday after British media likened England’s stoppage time between the second and third Tests to a “stag party”, with unverified footage on social media appearing to show opener Ben Duckett drunk and disoriented. Stokes did not respond to the specific allegations, instead emphasizing that player welfare was his main concern as England prepared for the fourth Test in Melbourne.

England cricket chief Rob Key has since pledged to investigate the claims, while the ECB has said it intends to establish the facts.Writing in his Telegraph column, Vaughan cut through the noise with a brutal defense of the players. “I am not going to criticize England for what they did at Noosa,” Vaughan wrote. “I criticize what they do on the cricket field, the way they play and the way they prepare to play cricket.”Vaughan admitted the images were unflattering, but said targeting Duckett was unfair. “I’m not going to point the finger at a bunch of kids who had a few beers on a few days off,” he said. “I did exactly the same thing as them when I played for England, although I at least knew when it was time to go home, and that’s probably what Ben Duckett needs to learn.”

The former skipper then added that it was a systemic problem rather than an individual failure. “Duckett should not be reprimanded at all based on the evidence we have seen, and neither should the other players,” Vaughan argued. “It’s a bigger problem that the game of cricket has created this drinking culture.”According to Vaughan, this culture is not unique to England. “England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa all have the same culture,” he writes. “You give a group of kids three or four days off to relax, and they’ll do something like that. »