England cricketers aren't thugs insists MD Andrew Strauss as Jonny Bairstow 'headbutt' incident follows Ben Stokes street brawl
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Loading... - Frank Hayes
- 28 Nov 2020
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Andrew Strauss insists he does not have a team of thugs representing English cricket after Jonny Bairstow was embroiled in a ‘head-butting’ incident Down Under, writes Dean Wilson in Brisbane.
But he has slapped a midnight curfew on his players to be back in the team hotel after socialising for the rest of the tour
The England players were resistant of the measure before the trip and agreed to a self-policing curfew of midnight two days before a game, but that has now been extended to the whole tour following the latest episode.
In the wake of the Ben Stokes saga that's still being investigated by police, the last thing Strauss needed during this Ashes winter in Australia was for another player to be the subject of violent behaviour.
The England managing director breathed a sigh of relief after investigating the incident and hearing both players involved, Bairstow and Cameron Bancroft, talking of the bumping of heads as a friendly if “weird” event.
The problem for Strauss and England though is that they have allowed themselves to be viewed in such a negative way despite the repeated warnings after the Bristol brawl for them to be smarter, and coach Trevor Bayliss admitted his players have made ‘dumb’ decisions.
“These guys are not thugs,” said Strauss. “These are good, honest, hard-working cricketers who sacrifice a lot to play for England.
“But the perception of them and the reality is different at the moment and we’ve got to take steps to make sure that reality is what people perceive of the England cricket team, not something different.
“The last thing any of us want is to be in the news for the wrong reasons and I will clearly be reminding the players of their obligations.
“They need to make sure they don’t put themselves in a position to be targeted. That’s where it requires a little bit of intelligence and smartness. There’s a bit of naivety there. We need to be smarter.”
England coach Trevor Bayliss thought that his players might have learned to curb their behaviour following the Stokes incident, but hopes this latest episode will be enough for them not to be ‘extra dumb’ in future.
And in addition to the new curfew he admitted that he could even look at imposing a booze ban if that is what it will take to keep his players on the straight and narrow.
“Everywhere in the world, most people like going out at night for a couple of quiet ones,” said Bayliss. “But you’ve got to be careful you don’t do anything stupid — and if that means not having anything to drink then so be it.
“It probably means tightening up curfews. Players put curfews on themselves around matches, then it’s up to me to say we haven’t got a game for a few nights, you can head out but obviously not be stupid.
“That’s the disappointing thing, we make dumb decisions at different times.
“I thought the player behaviour would change after Bristol (Stokes) as well — they’d be extra dumb and stupid if it didn’t.”
As for Bancroft and Bairstow, they both played down the incident, which happened in a Perth bar at the start of this tour.
The England man was being playful rather than malicious, and Bancroft just thought it was "weird."
Bancroft said: “For me personally, it was just really weird. It was so random, and I certainly didn’t expect it coming. As I said, a handshake or a hug would have been something that I probably expected more than a headbutt.
“I don’t know Jonny Bairstow, but he says hello to people very differently to most others. He hit me with a force that would make me think: ‘Wow, that’s a bit weird.’ And that was it.
“I’ve actually got the heaviest head in the Western Australia squad. It’s been measured. There’s an actual measurement for it. So yeah, I just took the blow quite well and moved on from it.”
