English captain Ben Stokes has responded to accusations that Australian players were rejected by their English counterparts for a post-series drink after victory for the hosts in the fifth and final Test at The Oval.
It is usually customary for the two sides to get together in the dressing rooms after the series with friends, family and support staff alike, but foxsports.com.au revealed that a source close to the Australians said the English had no desire to do so.
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“We don’t really care, we’ve got the urn, but after a hard-fought series, it is pretty pathetic,” the source reportedly said.
“Talk about the spirit of cricket.”
Stokes tweeted just after 4am local time to address the controversy, reinforcing the version of events given by the English team.
“To clarify, our wrap took longer than expected because of multiple last time events,” Stokes wrote.
“We decided to meet up in the nightclub rather than the dressing room,” he added.
Cricket journalist Bharat Sundaresan reported that he’d noticed the Australian players “hanging around for quite a while waiting” to meet up with the English players after the match, with “Steve Smith even peering into the English rooms a couple of times before giving up.”
Sundaresan went on to report that the Australians had asked the English players about getting together, as is considered both traditional and sportsmanlike, but “didn’t get a response and allegedly the home team stayed behind locked doors.”
Sundaresan later reported that the English camp had clarified that the reason for the lack of post-series drinks with the opposition was in fact because of the concurrent retirements of Stuart Broad and Moeen Ali.
“Some clarification from the English camp now that their wrap up was extended because of the retirees & presentations & that they were keen on drinking with the Aussies & surprised that the visitors left early,” Sundaresan wrote on Twitter.
“Multiple misunderstandings at the end of a great Ashes?”
It comes after a series filled with theatre and controversy, including Australian players abused in the usually genteel Lord’s Long Room after an Alex Carey stumping, and English players plastered across the front pages of the Australian press variously as whingers, crybabies and sooks for their response to the dismissal.
The events after the conclusion of the series were not unforeseen, with England coach Brendon McCullum going as far as saying that he couldn’t imagine sharing a drink with the Australians after the series.
“I can’t imagine we’ll be having a beer with them any time soon,” McCullum said in a post-match press conference.
Despite his side going on to not socialise with the opposition after the series, McCullum spoke at length about the “spirit of the game”.
“I was lucky enough to play for a long period of time, and you learn over a long period that the game and the spirit of the game is so vital to this great game,” McCullum said after the Lord’s Test.
“It’s one thing we’ve got that other sports maybe don’t have, and to uphold that is such an important part of it.”
The Spirit of Cricket is articulated in the preamble to the Laws of the game, and states that “respect is central to the Spirit of Cricket.
“Create a positive atmosphere by your own conduct, and encourage others to do likewise,” it states.
“Congratulate the opposition on their successes, and enjoy those of your own team. Thank the officials and your opposition at the end of the match, whatever the result.”
The teams got together at the end of the 2021/22 series, despite the English being demolished 4-0.
Police would be called to to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Hobart at 6am after the fifth Test after Travis Head, Alex Carey, Nathan Lyon and James Anderson drank through the night, some still in their playing whites.
At the conclusion of the 2019 Ashes tour to England which was also similarly close, also ending in a draw, the two teams were seen in the rooms together at Old Trafford.
The wholesome moment was captured by the head of communications for the English men’s team, Danny Reuben, who described it what Ashes cricket was “all about”.
“The cut and thrust of Ashes cricket,” Reuben wrote.
“Let’s just have a beer and reminisce. Why cricket is the best!”
Australian cricket fans were livid at the news that this time around, no social beers would be drunk, with the post-match beverage a sacrosanct tradition that flows down to the lowest levels of the game.
The Age sport reporter Andrew Wu said “teeing up drinks between parties in neighbouring rooms can’t be that hard”, comparing it to organising international sport during Covid.
SEN’s Andy Maher said if it was true that the English players had refused a drink, it was “poor”.
“If true, poor behaviour from a team which now sits appropriately as a symbol for a nation of whining blowhards,” Maher wrote.
“Whatever high ground they pretended to occupy is crumbled beneath them.”
SEN’s Charlie Goodsir completely rejected the English camp’s clarification blaming the lack of drinks on post-match presentations.
“I call cap,” Goodsir simply wrote on Twitter – the colloquial “cap” refers to a lie or a falsehood.