I’m not going to judge Ben Duckett for drinking. I did the same

3 hours ago 4

Opinion

December 25, 2025 — 1.30pm

I am not going to criticise England for what they got up to in Noosa. I criticise what they do on the cricket field, the way they play and the way they prepare to play cricket. I am not going to point the finger at a group of young people who have had a few beers on a couple of days off.

I did exactly the same as them when I played for England, although I did at least know when it was time to go home and that is probably what Ben Duckett needs to learn.

Ben Duckett at the MCG on Christmas Day.

But fundamentally, let us judge Duckett on the cricket field, let us judge Rob Key, the director of cricket, on the decisions that he has made and let us judge Brendon McCullum on the coaching he has delivered. Let us judge Ben Stokes on his captaincy over the series, and the players in terms of their numbers when the series has finished.

Do not throw the book at them for having a few drinks or Jacob Bethell dancing to YMCA in a nightclub, but it is a great lesson for Key because it shows what can happen if you take your eye off the ball.

If Key gets the chance to move the team forward in the future he has to be better at reading the room. They can say that we are all using the benefit of hindsight, but many people said the preparation was not right, that they had chosen the wrong spinner, but this team ignored the people on the outside.

They have to accept people outside their bubble and the information they can deliver is good for the team because they are not emotionally attached and feel obliged to tell them what they want to hear.

So far, the tour has been a shocker because they have played terrible cricket, not prepared well enough or delivered a professional environment to play the game to the standard required in Australia.

But there is no way in a million years that we should be burying young people having a bit of fun in between Test matches, as long as it has not gone too far and there are incidents that have not emerged yet.

Duckett should not be reprimanded at all on the evidence we have seen and neither should the other players because it is a wider issue: the game of cricket has created this drinking culture.

England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa all have the same culture. You give a group of young people three or four days off to relax, and they are going to do something like this.

If you make stupid decisions on the field, you make them off it as well

The one thing that sticks with me though is how often we hear England talk about pressure. You do not hear other teams mentioning it as much, and I do not think England are under any more pressure than anyone else. It is something they tell themselves too often.

The one piece of advice I will give to the players is that when you start making stupid decisions on the field, you are more likely to make a few stupid decisions off it as well and they have to improve.

They have to become a more mature group who make good cricket decisions. That stems from the leadership because they have allowed this kind of culture to grow for too long.

Maybe now is the time that they look themselves in the mirror as a group and recognise they need to improve and identify what they need to do to change.

They have two games left in Australia to show they can change the way they play and how they prepare for the big moments.

It has been a shambles so far, but it does not mean they cannot gain a huge amount in the next two weeks.

Telegraph, London

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