England’s cricket team had a simple directive after their victory in the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s on Sunday: act sensibly. Yet, that guidance seems to have been ignored.
Despite the celebratory atmosphere, captain Ben Stokes and bowler Gus Atkinson stumbled at the outset, reminiscent of the team’s previous misadventures last winter. For those following English cricket, it’s another exasperating moment, leaving many shaking their heads.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is currently delving into what transpired during the early hours of Monday morning at a nightclub near the team’s Kensington hotel in west London. Some details, however, have begun to surface.
In a twist of fate, Stokes is poised to pass the captaincy to Harry Brook. This move is notably ironic, considering Brook’s own incident with a nightclub bouncer in Wellington last November, which the ECB discreetly handled until the final day of the Ashes series in Sydney.
Even if Stokes expresses remorse in the coming days, his position as team captain appears increasingly untenable. His actions have not only embarrassed his employers but seem to ignore the lessons from the past. If this indeed marks the end of his tenure as captain, it would be an unfortunate and absurd conclusion.
Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson broke the team’s curfew just one match into the Test summer
At least the ECB have come clean this time, as they failed to do with Brook, putting out a statement inside 24 hours of whatever altercation took place. There are suggestions, too, that their crimes do not extend beyond the curfew and the drink, and that Stokes and Atkinson were not the catalysts for the incident. The police are not involved.
And yet. It’s hard to react with anything other than despair at the idea that Stokes, in his first Test since the Ashes, and with English cricket making every conceivable noise about a fresh chapter as they seek to reconnect with their public, thought it sensible to break the freshly minted rules.
After his infamous night out in Bristol nine years ago led to a punch-up and an appearance in court, Stokes himself observed that ‘nothing good happens after midnight’. And so here he is, testing out that theory once more.
Atkinson, too, was part of an Ashes tour whose trip to Noosa on the Sunshine Coast was regarded as the best-organised part of England’s trip. He, too, should have known better than to disregard the plans that were put in place partly to help convince an increasingly sceptical fanbase that Brendon McCullum’s dressing-room places professionalism before partying.
England denied all winter that their drinking culture has gone too far, yet what are we to conclude when, only 166 overs into their international summer, they are making the same old mistakes?
 Atkinson took seven wickets across two innings at Lord’s but is now in hot water
Stokes, it’s true, has had a difficult few months, processing the Ashes disappointment and suffering a serious blow to his cheekbone in the nets. During the build-up to the Lord’s Test last week, it was the coach – not the captain – who did the heavy media lifting. When Stokes did front up, he wasn’t at his best.
But the answer to difficult times can never be to make life even more difficult. England had emerged from a tricky game on a tough pitch with the win they craved. Box ticked: now for The Oval. Instead, he and Atkinson have reopened barely healed wounds.
An hour or so after the conclusion of Sunday’s Test at Lord’s, Stokes told the media: ‘I probably won’t be real happy and smiling until I get up there and share a proper beer with the boys, because I have to come here and do this – no disrespect to you guys.’
No disrespect was taken. Clearly, though, we had missed the headline.