Joe Root hacked off — the England captain’s own words at Lord’s on Tuesday, two days out from the second Test. He came to talk cricket and opened instead on Brydon Carse, the fast bowler dropped from the squad after being filmed in handcuffs in Derby.
Carse, 31, was celebrating Durham’s win on Saturday night when he was briefly arrested on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly, then de-arrested and released without charge. He was not on England duty but is centrally contracted; the ECB has referred it to the independent Cricket Regulator. Root said he had led a “very robust discussion” with his players since Monday, ESPNcricinfo reported.
“If I’m being brutally honest, I’m really hacked off, I’m really disappointed,” Root said. “After last week’s performance, we’re sat here and we’re talking about something that is not related to it at all.” Carse, he said, was “very upset, very apologetic”. “I don’t think it’s the isolated incident itself, it’s the fact we keep making stupid mistakes away from the game and it’s detracting from what we’re doing on the field,” he told the BBC.
Joe Root hacked off, not asking for saints
“I’m not trying to sit here and ask people to be saints,” he added, per the Guardian. “If we don’t put ourselves in certain situations it’s not something we have to worry about.” He wants a code players set themselves: “It doesn’t have to be rocket science. As players you get judged on the decisions you make on the field and off it too.”
“Of course that’s not going to happen overnight,” Root said of the culture. The shorter deadline is Thursday, when England start the Lord’s Test 1–0 up after their innings win at Headingley, their captain wanting the talk to be cricket, not another off-field story.
