Harry Brook has admitted he is fortunate to still be England captain after describing his altercation with a nightclub bouncer the night before a one-day international against New Zealand as a ‘terrible mistake’.
The November incident resulted in Brook being fined and warned about his future conduct by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
The 26-year-old was made white-ball skipper last April and promoted to vice-captain of the Test team in September, with Brook initially apologising in a statement after the final Test of England’s Ashes thrashing in Australia.
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Brook faced the media in Colombo on Wednesday ahead of their three-match ODI series with Sri Lanka, where he revealed he took it upon himself to go out alone in Wellington and was “clocked” by a bouncer as he tried to get into a nightclub.
“I made a terrible mistake, not only as a player, but as a captain,” Brook admitted. “It’s very unprofessional and I should be leading from the front and showing the players how it should be as a professional cricketer and a captain and I put myself in a bad situation.
“I want to say sorry to my team-mates, to all the fans that travel far and wide and spend a lot of money to watch us play cricket. We went out for a couple of drinks beforehand and then I took it upon myself to go out for a few more and I was on my own there.”
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Brook revealed he told the ECB what happened during that ODI in Wellington, believing doing so saved him from more severe punishment, although was worried that he would be sacked as captain.
“I trusted the ECB in telling them that I made a mistake and thankfully I’m still playing cricket for England and that’s a childhood dream,” Brook added. “I told them mid-game. I felt like I needed to reflect on it and try and come up with a plan to negate what happened.
“(Resigning) never came into my mind. I left that decision to the hierarchy and look, if they’d have sacked me from being captain, then I’d have been perfectly fine with it as long as I was still playing cricket for England.
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“Probably slightly (lucky). Even if I had been sacked, I’d have held my hands up and said, ‘look, I’ve made the mistake’ and I’d have been perfectly fine with getting sacked from the job as captain, as long as I was still playing cricket.”
Brook plays down England team ‘drinking culture’
The incident was one multiple controversial moments in recent months, with England having to answer questions around their preparation and an alleged “drinking culture” after a mid-Ashes trip to Noosa.
ECB chief executive Richard Gould is conducting a formal review of the Ashes tour, including a focus on “behaviour”, with England players now subjected to a midnight curfew among other restrictions.
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“I don’t think there’s a drinking culture at all,” Brook insisted. “We’re all old enough and grown up enough to be able to say no if we don’t want to drink, and grown up enough to be able to say yes if you do want a drink.
“It wasn’t just drinking. We weren’t just going out and getting leathered every day. We were having a few drinks here and there. We were playing plenty of golf, going to nice cafes, having coffees but we had a few drinks here and there.”
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Brook is preparing to lead England in this six-match tour of Sri Lanka – with three ODIs followed by three T20s – before their T20 World Cup campaign begins in Mumbai on February 9, live on Sky Sports Cricket.
“I think I’ve got a little bit of work to do to try and regain the trust of the players,” Brook added. “I said sorry to them yesterday [Tuesday]. I felt like I needed to say sorry for my actions.
“It’s not not acceptable as a player, but as a captain it’s really not acceptable to do what I did in New Zealand.”
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On the forthcoming series, Brook said: “We won’t be taking these games lightly at all. We want to go out there and win and play our best cricket. Every tour we go on we want to try to win.
“Every game we want to win. We’ve got a big series coming up here against a strong side in their own conditions and it’s good preparation before the T20 World Cup.
“We just haven’t been consistent enough and haven’t performed to the best of our ability enough. We’ve probably struggled with the aggressiveness of the way we want to play. It’s about capitalising on good starts.”
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