Only a few days after the win that was supposed to put to bed a dark winter and open the curtains on sunlit uplands, English cricket feels more confused than ever.
The appointment of Joe Root as stand-in captain for next week’s second Test against New Zealand at The Oval, and no doubt for the third at Trent Bridge, is an understandable attempt to impose some order after Sunday night’s visit by Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson to the Rex Rooms consigned everything to chaos.
But when the ECB are engaging in a constant game of whack-a-mole – knocking on the head one crisis here just as another pops up there – pragmatism will get you only so far.
And when Rob Key, the managing director of men’s cricket, feels obliged to say of the Test team he presides over, ‘No, I don’t think they’ve become a national embarrassment’, the point is not so much his denial as the fact that the question has been posed in the first place.
Behind closed doors, the mood at Lord’s is said to be of a despair that is heartfelt but proportionate, and Key looked suitably grave as he addressed the media in The Oval Long Room on Thursday morning. There is justifiable and genuine concern about Stokes’s state of mind, as well as a duty of care to a captain who, for a while now, has not looked himself.
But perceptions matter, and the public are going to need plenty of convincing that the latest boozy misadventure was anything other than confirmation that this England dressing-room is out of control – and that no one has the faintest idea how to change direction.
There is justifiable and genuine concern within the ECB about Ben Stokes’s state of mind, as well as a duty of care to the captain
Rob Key, the managing director of men’s cricket, felt obliged to say of the Test team on Thursday: ‘No, I don’t think they’ve become a national embarrassment’
It beggared belief to hear Key say that Atkinson claimed he ‘didn’t know’ that the curfew existed, even though it had been put in place for the white-ball tour of Sri Lanka that immediately followed the Ashes, and was communicated to the players via their agents, as well as in person.
Had Atkinson been living under a rock? Or was he just trying to wriggle off the hook? Either way, it did not immediately suggest much empathy with the national anger that took hold during and after the Ashes.
And it has left Key contemplating a total alcohol ban – the kind of over-reaction that would make the already demanding life of a Test cricketer less attractive, in an era when Brendon McCullum has been trying to create the opposite effect.
As Key put it: ‘I need to think through these things, because I don’t want to make a rash decision that actually hinders the team and creates a situation where they don’t feel they can do anything. But the players now have to show the public that they can be trusted. At this point it’s hard to say they can.’
Swinging from the laissez-faire to the draconian is no way to achieve the stability England crave.
The fudge of the Root appointment, of course, is partly a consequence of Harry Brook’s own nightclub set-to, in Wellington in October, and partly a desire to avoid saddling him with too much responsibility.
But since being punched by a bouncer, Brook has settled into the job as white-ball captain and established a tight relationship with McCullum. It is possible he will lead England into the Ashes next summer, and time is running out for him to get used to the job. Making him, not Root, the captain for the rest of the New Zealand series would have been the bolder move, despite the criticism it would have provoked.
Instead, England are in a holding pattern at a moment when they should be striding ahead. And the uncertainty was exacerbated by Key’s reluctance to support the idea that Stokes will remain as Test captain.
The fudge of the Joe Root appointment as captain for the next Test is partly a consequence of Harry Brook’s own nightclub set-to, in Wellington in October
The ECB are now contemplating a total alcohol ban in an era when Brendon McCullum (above right) has been trying to make playing Test cricket more attractive
‘We’ve just got to let that play out, to be honest,’ he said. ‘The decision is about what’s best for the team and what’s best for Ben as well. It’s not just about what’s happened on Sunday night. It’s about what is the best thing moving forward, and that’s where we need the time, because that’s a big decision.’
Asked whether his words meant he wouldn’t sack Stokes, Key replied: ‘I’m not saying that.’
In one sense, the administrators deserve sympathy: curfews are useless if the players are too drunk to even think about respecting them, and grown men cannot be frog-marched to their hotel rooms on the stroke of midnight. But this is the team that McCullum and Key built, and it is not unfair to ask whether the chaos stems from the top.
‘I feel like at times you can’t win,’ said a grim-faced Key. ‘I get criticised for being too horrible and not nice enough to some of these players, and then other people think I’m too soft on them. So, you know, I reflect on lots of things.’
English cricket is full of reflection right now. The trouble is, no one can say where it will all end.
