The Ashes 2023 provided wholesome entertainment with plenty of drama on the field with the added flavour of spirit of cricket controversy dividing players and fans alike. The series though ended with England winning the fifth Test to force a 2-2 draw even as Australia retained the Ashes.
Hours after the post-match presentation, another drama unfolded with reports of England not joining their Australian counterparts for a customary post-series drinks. The fact that England coach Brendon McCullum had earlier in the series claimed he wouldn’t be having a beer with their rivals anytime soon added fueled the controversy.
England captain Ben Stokes though doused the fire quickly by clarifying that the two set of players did meet but at a nightclub and not in the dressing room.
“To clarify… Our wrap took longer than expected because of multiple last time events. We decided to meet up in the nightclub rather than the dressing room,” Stokes had tweeted.
Now, Australia batter Travis Head has opened up on the fiasco, saying it was something that got played up a little bit in the media. He said they did knock on England’s door a couple of times but the delay turned into an hour leaving them a bit fed up.
“In terms of it, it’s been played up a little bit,” Head said on the Willow Talk podcast. “Post-match, I think we hung around for a little bit. They had a couple of retirements, and, I think, a few staff that was going. We sort of knocked a couple of times and got told two minutes, which turned into an hour, and the boys got a bit fed up.”
He confirmed that the two teams did meet at a nightclub later on but it wasn’t ‘by design’ either.
“But yeah, a few of the boys met up with them afterwards, and I’ve been in contact with a couple of the guys that I was close with about the differences in the timings. A bit disappointing, but I don’t think it was by design,” Head said.
“We didn’t go there together (the nightclub). It’s just by design again that both teams found themselves at the same place. I think it was a Monday night, but there are not many places to go on a Monday night in London, so we found ourselves at the same place… shared one or two Vodka Red Bulls together and then off to the flight,” he added.
Head said the players themselves laughed off the turn of events. “There was a few boys that I know, [like] Ben Duckett was sort of chirping me a little bit about us dogging them and I chirped in a little bit about them dogging us, so all in good spirits,” Head said.
Like I said, I think it was all a bit laughed off from us, and then the media played it up a little bit. It wasn’t meant to be, but those things happen,” he added.
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