Jonny Bairstow accepts England’s players have let down their captain, Joe Root, and must rebuild public trust by delivering on the field during the remainder of the Ashes series.
Root and Trevor Bayliss, the England head coach, expressly told the players to behave following Ben Duckett’s suspension from Lions duty for tipping a drink over Jimmy Anderson.
England insist their investigation into events has concluded, with no further action to be taken against others present that night. The midnight curfew is now restored – much to the chagrin of the squad members who know how to conduct themselves – and the focus is on the third Test which starts on Thursday.
That it occurred in the same Avenue bar in Claremont where Bairstow’s now infamous “head-butt” greeting to Cameron Bancroft took place at the start of the tour has given rise to the perception of a squad out of control, something not helped by their being 2-0 down with three to play in what has been a faltering Ashes defence.
“We need to rebuild the trust we had built over the last few years as a team,” said Bairstow, as the team’s representative at an event for Yorkshire Tea on Monday, the type of sponsors the England and Wales Cricket Board fears could be put off by such a sequence of events.
“You rebuild it by winning games of cricket. You’ve got to go out and win games and that starts at training and then in the Test. The lads are still feeling positive and there is no reason we can’t go forward.”
Asked if Root had been let down, replied: “I think everyone realises that is something we have done. And not just him. But we move on from that now. It is something that has been dealt with. We’ve got a chance as a group to go out there and front up.”
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Trust between the players, the ECB hierarchy and the security staff may also need rebuilding over the coming weeks, not least since it was the latter who flagged up the Duckett incident to the team management, who then decided to release the news pro-actively.
Both of those calls were made in light of the Bairstow situation at the start of the tour, which only came to the attention of the ECB and the coaches four weeks after the event – during the Brisbane Test – when a local reporter put it to them.
There is a feeling among the squad that the delay in exonerating Bairstow and the curfew which then resulted was an error. Those above them are in turn staggered that certain individuals seem unable to grasp the significance of representing their country, not least given that the brief relaxation of the midnight cut-off resulted in another incident.
The responses of the ECB and the team management to two acts that may otherwise have been considered trivial have been shaped by the arrest of Ben Stokes in Bristol last September after a night out, the fallout from which continues to affect events on and off the field.
Certainly Australia are keen to use this latest situation to their advantage, with their wicketkeeper, Tim Paine, saying he and his team-mates intend to sledge England’s players about it on the field when what has been an acrimonious series resumes at the Waca this week.
“I’m sure someone will bring it up at some stage,” said Paine.
Jonny Bairstow
