So Ben Stokes (and Gus Atkinson) have been suspended for 1 test (at least). They broke an agreed curfew and apparently got into a fracas in a London nightclub.
The Guardian article linked below makes this valid point:
“Has anyone from the ECB actually been in the stands to watch one of the matches they put on? The Lord’s Test is one long piss-up. They buy in 300,000 pints for every Test. The place has an entire garden that you can only get into if you buy a bottle of champagne. In Stokes’s time, the ECB has had an official ale, an official lager, and an official cider, right now it has both an official wine partner and an official sparkling wine partner. The day before the Test, MCC put out a press release celebrating their new partnership with Guinness.”
I have been to a few tests at Headingley mainly in the 90s, at least in those days you could take alcohol into the ground with you. However the quantity was limited to no more than 4 cans of beer AND a bottle of wine! WTF! You could also nip out during the lunch or tea break and buy more from a local store if you wanted to. Of course alcohol was also available in the ground.
When one looks at the UK from a distance, it seems alcohol consumption is embedded in nearly all forms of social, cultural and sporting life. So cricketers getting drunk is just doing what everybody else does.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jun/09/stokes-shouldnt-lose-his-job-for-breaking-curfew-when-the-ecbs-failings-run-so-much-deeper
I cannot understand this. Sure, fine both players heavily, but suspending them just doesn’t seem the right thing to do for those many thousands of people who have paid significant sums of money to attend the next Test, at the Oval. I declined an offer of a ticket for next Friday as I have other commitments, but were I to have paid upwards of £100 for the day I would be well and truly pissed off if Stokes, one of the greatest cricketers in the modern era, if not in history, does not play because he broke a curfew! They broke the curfew after finishing the first Test, not while it was still on; a Test which saw Atkinson take five wickets. This decision is crazy.
I guess the curfew applies for the duration of the series. Stokes *was* a great cricketer, if he wasn’t the captain then his position could be in doubt I think based on recent form and fitness
Whatever, it was pretty tone deaf to go out on the piss after the shenanigans in Australia while being soundly beaten (Stokes not a culprit then though), but, hey, it’s the British way!
Ill-considered decisions do indeed seem to be the British way nowadays, in all walks of life. Which is why we seem to be in so much of a pickle as a nation. Yes, Stokes and Atkinson were tone deaf and the ECB had to act. But I think the paying public should have been central to whatever sanction they chose – and denying punters the opportunity to watch the strongest possible English team, with the strongest players, taking on New Zealand is going to upset – and possibly alienate – a lot of people.
Nah, they’ll just get pissed. That’s what a day out at the test is all about isn’t it? 😉
I confess I would have a few beers at Headingley, but the atmosphere on the Western Terrace in the final session of the day was pretty horrible
Meanwhile, behind the sight screens, Beefy and Viv are toking a fat one, giggling like 12 year olds.
Mmm. The ECB probably had little choice but to impose a sanction in all the circumstances. But it sticks in the craw somewhat to see Stokes, who has apparently repeatedly turned down the IPL shilling, dropped, whilst Jofra Archer returns. A man who had to have a rest after bowling 60 overs in whole 2026 edition of said IPL.
Root back as the interim Captain. Slow and try not to lose.
Definitely a 5 day test at The Oval then!
As a non drinker I always sit in the sober stand esp at Edgbaston. I really like tests in the sub continent there’s much less boozing.
As a fellow teetotaller, and occasional village cricketer, it always amuses me to hear professional cricketers to describe themselves as performance athletes. Imagine how much better they’d play without beer guts and hangovers.
My last visit was an ODI at Trent Bridge about 20 years ago. What with the all-day beer drinking, the pub opposite the ground after the match, followed by a curry washed down with lagers, exactly how we got back to our digs across town in Beeston remains a mystery.
You got digs in Beeston? Lucky you!
The floor of the same student house my future Best Man stayed in a few years previously. Some of his housemates didn’t move out after graduating.
They’re probably still there.
The Gabba (Brisbane) used to allow a carton (24 stubbies) per person to be brought in to the ground, blokes would also get their girlfriends to bring a carton in to ensure they didn’t run out. That’s how the pig with ‘Beefy’ written on its side in ’83 was smuggled into the venue, in an esky !
Real beer or Fosters? Still wouldn’t be enough for David Boon
VB
Same at other grounds. I wonder if they were large cans or the smaller ones we have now.
The culture of serious drinking in the UK is definitely reducing. Pubs closing, “wellness”, cost, it being cheaper to use drugs (also allegedly less used than they were), a sizeable population that does not drink, etc. I can foresee a time when the all-day subsidised bars in Parliament are finally closed or at least much more regulated. it was a vestige of aristocratic and industrial culture, uniting the upper and lower classes, and the middles would try to be posh or “authentic” depending on if they were left or right. My own drinking has much reduced, and with it, so have I; cutting out beer, cider, more than 1 glass of wine, and pork scratchings turned out to explain “the day of the expanding man”, of which I was a member. Who knew? Frankly, the occasional gin and slimline seems quite enough these days.
Stokes deserves to be suspended, or lose the captaincy.
A curfew was agreed upon. You could argue whether the Test having concluded one was actually warranted, but nonetheless that was what in place for the team
The captain broke it. The captain broke it, after all that stuff in Australia and NZ. How could any of the players take him seriously about discipline any more?
Townsend sat down Finn Russell over something similar. The ECB have done the right, if minimal, thing.
Part of the culture seems to be the extent to which entertainment and sporting venues now rely on selling alcohol to make money. I’ve never been shy of a pint or two in the past, but was never keen on drinking at gigs or footy given how much of the action you missed either buying or or getting rid of it, aside from the daft prices charged for the most ordinary of drinks.
I watch a fair bit of cricket at Somerset, and always marvel at the quantity some can sink in a 3 hour T20 game. It’s rare that there’s any real trouble but stewards can often be seen asking for people to calm down, ejections occasionally happen and the museum doesn’t open because “beer and museums don’t mix”. There’s an annual beer festival that discounts drinks if you buy them in blocks of 5, and the club make endless attempts to try and retain drinkers after the games.
Over the close season the one of the main “enhancements” was a new bar called Joel’s which has all the ambience of a dentist’s waiting room and the same dismal selection of beer as the other dozen outlets scattered round the ground.
Go to a comedy gig and venues insist on an interval so they can encourage you to pre purchase drinks there is barely time to neck. At the last Edinburgh festival, across about 30 different venues I didn’t see one that didn’t have a least 1 bar. trading from 9am onwards. Some put on gigs for free, and remined people to buy a drink as a way of repaying the venue.
I’ve seen figures suggesting around 350 breweries have gone bust since Covid. Meanwhile whilst BrewDog’s collapse claimed all the headlines, Innis and Gunn who were a bigger player at the festival also went bust owing £20m. The brands live on but job losses were significant, breweries closed and brewers like Wadworths, Adnams, Harveys, Shepherd Neame and several others face significant challenges due to the high costs of pub estates, debt and ultra thin margins if they can actually get into supermarkets. By far the biggest opportunity today is in the low / no alcohol market, which is expected to be 10% of total sales by 20230 whilst traditional brands diminish.
Being facetious, I have to say that 10% of the market by 20230 isn’t that impressive!
I used to go to county cricket games on and off in the 80s and 90s and it was definitely an excuse for an all day piss up. Doesn’t sound like it has changed much.
By the year 20230 it’s definitely not much to write home about. The total market includes wine and spirits which might make it seem a bit small. All the growth is at the expense of beer and lager which is in decline.
“after getting into a fracas in a London nightclub”
Are our cricketers still in the tail end of the last century?
The first time I took my son to an ODI at the SCG, we got to our seats just in time to see Glenn McGrath clean bowl Sachin Tendulkar. (So yeah it was a while ago). It would have only been about 11am but so many guys were absolutely pissed by then. My son (aged about 11 at the time) asked why they were all yelling and carrying on long after the wicket had fallen, and it was bewildering task to explain that beer was the culprit.
Don’t like Stokes, never have done, and his exclusion from the Second Test is making me look forward to it more than usual.
His truly woeful captaincy in the 2023 Ashes, with three calamitous decisions in the first four matches, should have been enough to have seen his dismissal, quite apart from his questionable behaviour away from the cricket field.
I’ve heard he’s a big fan of The Clash.
He looks ugly enough to be.
Anyway, the only hits today are coming from the New Zealand team… 307 for 0 as I speak… a relief as the narrative would have been favourable to the guy on his return.
It’s definitely time to get rid.
Then he took a wicket, as Sir Geoffrey says, wait until both teams have batted before making a judgement. Many wrote England off halfway through their 1st innings at Lords, they won that one comfortably. They then got hammered at the Oval without Stokes
Then he took 3 more wickets, and England are in the game.
A friend wrote a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald comparing fates of Starmer and Stokes.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/204400319@N03/1nydqt4oj3
Stokes has announced his retirement from international cricket after this test (and then took a wicket with his next ball)
What a bonkers afternoon of cricket!
Albeit on a dodgy wicket… 373 needed at about 3.5 runs or so an over.
England didn’t feel like trying to win the series? It was more important to turn it into another Stuart Broad love-in at The Oval. Why? When did the individual become more important than the team and the series result?
Who knows, maybe they still will, they won’t deserve it. The heroes today were the New Zealand side, at one point they only had two bowlers, and they were dropping like flies.
Atherton and the other commentators seemed rather incredulous at what was going on. This media which was once in Stokes shoes have really become the very dull establishment. Vaughan is another with his comments on Brook today. He was following Stokes lead, maybe it was an over the top crazy innings but seriously, its not really a match we’d win, have some fun, tickets are free tomorrow.
I’m sure its been mentioned but Bothams comments about Stokes on that podcast the other week was the biggest act of cricket hypocrisy in many a year. “it was okay for me to do it.” Give me strength.
im sure Stokes is sick of these types. i dont blame him walking away. Go and earn a pretty penny in the IPL.
In a fun afternoon of cricket, maybe it was wrong of Stokes, self indlugent? Maybe, i dont know, but seriously, the pomposity of the commentary is quite hard to listen to.
On Cricinfo, the respected English writer Vithushan Ehantharajah put it well: “He will be remembered as a cricketer who produced truly astounding moments. Including this one, right here. The day he decided this last moment would be for himself, and he torched the church that he built as a haven, because it had become a haven for him no more.”
That’s a very telling quote….don’t really like the announcement coming mid match when it could easily have waited another 24 hours, but maybe he’s earned the right to do it his way!
Hope they don’t go for Brooks as captain, think he’s got enough on as white ball captain and given his innings yesterday not sure he’s ready for it either. So maybe back to Root then in the absence of any other candidates.
Earned the right? Why? Coz he couldn’t wait til the end of the Test?
How can it be anything other than making it all about him , as mentioned above, to do a Broad. But to be fair to Stuart he announced before the test.
It was a really good article and is worth a read.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/eng-vs-nz-stokes-stokes-england-s-flames-as-his-church-becomes-a-funeral-pyre-1543515
I thought England were pretty shambolic with the bat yesterday. They’ve shown themselves as capable of chasing these sort of totals (yes it’s a big ask), yet decided to effectively throw the game and the series down the pan. What would have been wrong with saying to the openers ‘get us to 50 for none by close of play and we’ll take it from there on the last day needing about 100 runs per session’.
Brook’s innings did not suggest to me that he is desperate to be England’s next test captain.
So who do we fancy for the captaincy…someone in the current squad or bring in someone new for the upcoming Pakistan series?
Perhaps a left field idea, but how about a recall for Jos Buttler, replacing Smith behind the stumps – plenty of experience and a decent batter.
Butter has failed as England’s one day captain and hasn’t played any red ball cricket since 2022.
Like many here, I have been watching cricket for a long time and I can’t quite recall seeing English cricket in this much disarray since the dark 90s. Such a meek acceptance of a series loss; Stokes and Brook on the balcony seemingly not giving a toss. Keep on smiling boys. The ‘coach’ seems cut adrift – what can he possibly do now with the philosophy in tatters. Brook’s batting suggested again that he lacks understanding. Yet in Brook, Root, Bethell and maybe Duckett they have enough batting and their bowling can be very penetrating. On paper, a stronger team than NZ yet lucky ( given the Lords pitch) to escape with one win.
It does seem that the cult of personality leadership has once again revealed its fundamental weakness – when you stop believing ( ashes loss) an entirely different belief system is required. To continue this metaphor, England’s agnosticism about test cricket had led to the abandonment or the revelation of the vulnerability of ‘we’re in the entertainment business’. Losing is never very entertaining. But judging from the look on the face of Brook, he doesn’t seem to have noticed.
Now Stokes has retired, England’s attack for the next series will be an opening partnership of Sicknote , J. and Sicknote, O.. Sicknote, G will come on first change. Josh Tongue will be allowed a few oversl, but only after some spin from Filth, S and the Pie-Thrower brothers.