Brydon Carse: What will it take to prevent England from having more hangovers?

Once again, the England men’s cricket team is reliving the remains of a late-night misdemeanor.

The latest stain on the game’s reputation results from photographs of fast bowler Brydon Carse handcuffed and surrounded by police officers outside a nightspot in Derby. His Durham team-mate Matthew Potts appears in the images, while former England captain Ben Stokes appears in the background.

If you’re keeping count, there are now eight English players involved in such incidents since Halloween last year.

Harry Brook was punched by a nightclub bouncer in Wellington, with Jacob Bethell and Josh Tongue present. Ben Duckett was filmed drunk in Noosa, then Stokes and Gus Atkinson were there when a member of England’s security staff was punched in a London nightclub in June, breaching a curfew in the process.

To put it another way, there are currently 30 men on central contracts in England. More than a quarter of them have been caught in trouble in the last 10 months. Of the four separate incidents, two involved beatings and another was a police matter.

In Carse’s case, his time spent in handcuffs came days after new England Test captain Joe Root called on his players to be “very good role models, good human beings”.

Root was speaking the day before England’s first Test against Pakistan, in which Carse was part of the team. The match was scheduled to continue when it found itself in the hands of the police.

It is understood Carse was not arrested. Both the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the Cricket Regulator will work to establish what happened. There are initial suggestions that he was refused entry to a nightclub or had a drink spilled on him.

Carse was also not specifically on duty in England at the time. He was released from the first Test squad to play for Durham in Derbyshire and was scheduled to report at Lord’s for the second Test on Monday.

As of Sunday afternoon he remains part of the team for the second test. England will take time to gather information before making a decision on whether to participate.

Root warned his team to “be adults” as he abolished the midnight curfew, in his first act as captain, which was imposed after previous incidents. As part of that measure, guidelines advising players not to drink alcohol the day before, during or after a game, or in public, were also removed.

There is a duty of care towards Carse. Two years ago, the 31-year-old was banned for historic betting offenses and rebuilt his career to become an England regular in all three formats. No bowler has more Test wickets for England than Carse’s 58 since debuting in October 2024.

But there is also a deep sense of anger and frustration within the ECB at having to deal with another error in judgment from a high-profile actor. Fans will have their own opinion, including the feeling that the behavior of these players is no longer a parody.

Is it necessary to leave someone off a team or receive a substantial suspension for the penny to drop? This could be Root’s chance to stamp his authority on a new era.

Naturally, the debate will arise again about not denying players their freedom or preventing them from enjoying a victory.

For Carse, Saturday night came less than 48 hours before his scheduled appearance in England. He is just a hamstring injury away from playing in a test at Lord’s on Thursday.

Perhaps most damning is the type of problems this group of English players seem to encounter. Two punches and a set of handcuffs. He also doesn’t seem to have realized that they are high-profile people, likely to attract attention, and the images make their way to social media, as happened with Carse.

And what about Stokes, who, despite being retired, remains an ECB employee through his central contract?

As a former captain, should Stokes have been aware that Carse was in that situation? What about the trouble Atkinson found himself in alongside Stokes in June?

Three weeks ago, Stokes denied that the England team has a drinking culture, but rather that the game itself has a problem. What has Stokes done to distance himself or those around him from that drinking culture?

Now we have to wait to see what happens next. The ECB was not aware of the incident until Sunday afternoon. The governing body will take a breather overnight and decide whether Carse needs to be removed from the Test squad.

Perhaps on Tuesday director of cricket Rob Key will again explain why the players he manages can’t avoid getting into trouble. In the wake of the Stokes-Atkinson incident in June, Key denied that England had become a “national embarrassment”. You may be asked again.

Key could also be asked about the whereabouts of new Test coach Stephen Fleming, who will not take up his role until the winter. Might Carse have been less inclined to step out of line if the new sheriff had been in town?

Well, here’s another situation for England to handle. Only vigorous action will ensure there are no more.