According to a Daily Mail report, England has drawn a line under the Ashes squad’s disastrous vacation to Noosa after an internal probe determined that the players had no case. Following England’s Test defeat in Adelaide, reports surfaced that the four-day vacation to Noosa resembled a stag-do, with several players allegedly doing little more than setting up the bar.
When a video of opener Ben Duckett appeared, showing him extremely drunk and slurring his words while interacting with a fan, the England cricket board moved into damage-limitation mode. Managing director Rob Key stated before to the start of the fourth Test that he would investigate the situation because the behavior wasn’t appropriate for an international squad.
According to Daily Mail Sport, the probe found nothing more damning than beer consumption, confirming the ECB hierarchy’s expectation that any significant incident during the trip would have been reported right away rather than waiting until the Ashes were lost in Adelaide.
Key mentioned the additional security that was set up for the trip in case some of the players wandered off from the main group to go somewhere else and discovered that no interventions were required. Reports of a stag-do atmosphere, according to a top security official, were unfounded.
Because of concerns that another Duckett-style could surface in the interim and go viral, the ECB has remained cautious throughout the majority of their probe. It seems, though, that if such a video existed, it would have been made public by now.
The management generally agrees that several aspects of the current Ashes tour have been lax, even though no action will be taken against the England players. The fifth and final Test will be crucial to the Ashes series’ outcome as England attempts to win a second Ashes match away for the second time since 1986–1987.
The Sydney Cricket Ground will host the series’ final Test from January 4, 2026.
