Harry Brook has been fined for a late-night altercation with a bouncer in Wellington. Photo / Getty Images
A contrite Harry Brook has admitted he was lucky not to be sacked as England’s white-ball captain after his drunken altercation with a bouncer in New Zealand.
At the end of England’s disastrous Ashes tour Telegraph Sport revealed how Brook was punched after being refused entry into a nightclub just hours before captaining the side in an ODI against New Zealand.
Ben Stokes, England’s Test captain “wasn’t best pleased”, Brook has now revealed. Stokes, however, has since helped counsel Brook as “he knows exactly what it feels like”, having gone through a comparable crisis early in his international career.
In an attempt to draw a line under the furore, the England white-ball captain has opened up on his “terrible mistake” after a late-night drinking session in Wellington on October 31.
As he leads England into the first of three one-day internationals in Sri Lanka on Thursday, Brook acknowledged:
Brook had been close to being sacked as white-ball captain after admitting to management he had been punched.
England’s conduct during the Ashes, which started shortly after the white-ball tour of New Zealand, had already been heavily criticised – in particular a mid-series holiday to Noosa where players, including Brook, were pictured drinking – before news of Brook’s altercation in Wellington emerged. He was fined about £30,000, the maximum amount possible by the England and Wales Cricket Board, for the incident.
In an interview with Telegraph Sport and other journalists, Brook, who has agreed with team-mates to have a midnight curfew in Sri Lanka, revealed he has apologised to the England team. But he refused to detail the exact circumstances of his nightclub incident, or who was with him.
The England captain described how he reported himself to the management midway through the third ODI at the Sky Stadium in Wellington.
“I told them mid-game,” he said. “I felt like I needed to reflect on it and try to come up with a plan to negate what happened.”
In that match, England slumped to 31 for four batting first, with Brook out for six off 11 balls. The tourists lost the match by two wickets, and were beaten 3-0 in the series.
“Obviously I made a terrible mistake, not only as a player, but as a captain,” Brook said. “It’s very unprofessional and I should be leading from the front and showing the players how it should be as a professional cricketer and a captain. I put myself in a bad situation, which I shouldn’t have done.”
He said he understood fan anger at the team as he said he was “extremely sorry” to team-mates, to supporters and to the ECB “for putting them in a tricky situation”. “It will never happen again,” he added.
Earlier, on the night in question, Brook had gone for some food when team-mates decided “let’s go for a drink”. “There was no intention of going out, no intention of putting ourselves in a tricky situation,” he said.
Police were not involved and Brook was not injured after being punched, but he said “it was definitely playing through my mind” that he could be sacked. He never considered offering his resignation, but added: “If they’d have sacked me from being captain, then I’d have been perfectly fine with it as long as I was still playing cricket for England.”
When asked whether he was lucky to still be in the job, he added: “Probably slightly, yeah.”
Rumours had been swirling that Brook ended up sleeping on a park bench, but he said such claims were “completely false”. “I was back in my hotel room,” he added.
Stokes, who was involved in a brawl outside a Bristol nightclub in 2017, “wasn’t best pleased” at Brook’s antics, he said.
“But he tried to help me through it and he knows exactly what it feels like to be in this situation,” the England white-ball captain said. “We had a few conversations, but we quickly moved on from that and tried to look forward to the Ashes and what we could do to try to win that.”
Brook endured a disappointing Ashes tour, failing to live up to his standing as the world’s No 2-ranked Test batsman. He scored just two fifties in 10 innings. However, he denied the furore had an impact on his game. “I don’t think it affected my performances at all,” he said.
Despite being photographed drinking in Noosa, he insisted the team were “drinking responsibly bar one situation”.
“Other than that, we were completely in control of what we were doing and we were just going out and having a drink, it was nothing silly,” Brook insisted.
“I don’t think there’s a drinking culture at all. We’re all old enough and grown up enough to be able to say no if we don’t want to drink, and grown up enough to be able to say yes if you do want a drink.”
A tumultuous winter for England has left Brendon McCullum’s future as coach beyond next month’s T20 World Cup in doubt. Rob Key, the managing director of cricket, is expected to survive the post-Ashes review.
The ECB has shown a desire to keep the hierarchy – including Stokes, whose position also seems safe – in place, with tweaks to the approach and culture.
Brook confirmed the midnight curfew in Sri Lanka was “made as a group decision” to “be able to put us in situations where we can win games of cricket and perform at the best of our ability”.
But he said “a couple of drinks here and there, as long as you’re drinking responsibly”, was not a problem during the Ashes.
“I think we just got outperformed throughout the series,” Brook said. “We weren’t just going out and getting leathered every day. We were having a few drinks here and there. We were playing plenty of golf, going to nice cafes, having coffees, but we had a few drinks here and there. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It’s just what human beings do.”
Brook admitted he must now prove himself to players and fans.
“I think I’ve got a little bit of work to do to try to regain the trust of the players,” he said. “I said sorry to them yesterday. I felt like I needed to say sorry for my actions. It’s not not acceptable as a player, but as a captain, it’s really not acceptable to do what I did in New Zealand. I’ll be the first person to say that. I hold my hands up.”
Supporters, he said, had “every right to be annoyed”. “It’s not acceptable as a player to do what I did, but as a captain, it’s completely out of order,” he added. “I should have never put myself in that situation.”
Richard Gould and Richard Thompson, the ECB’s respective chief executive and chairman, have been conducting a review into the Ashes campaign, which England lost 4-1 despite much pre-series optimism.
Brook launched an impassioned defence of under-fire McCullum. “He’s the best head coach I’ve had by a million miles,” the white-ball captain said. He makes you feel like you can go out there and do anything, he gives you the freedom to do anything.”
When asked about pressure on the coach, he added: “Every tour we go on we want to try to win. Every game we want to win. We’ve got a big series coming up here against a strong side in their own conditions and it’s good preparation before the T20 World Cup.”
Brook named the team to face Sri Lanka on Thursday and confirmed that Zak Crawley will return to open the batting alongside Test-opening partner Ben Duckett.