'I did exactly the same': Former captain defends England players amid Noosa 'drinking' storm

England’s Ashes tour has been engulfed by controversy off the field, but former captain Michael Vaughan has urged restraint, arguing that outrage over the team’s mid-series beach break in Noosa misses the bigger picture of cricket’s long-standing culture.

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Captain Ben Stokes faced pointed questions on Wednesday after British media reports likened England’s downtime between the second and third Tests to a “stag-do”, with unverified social media footage appearing to show opener Ben Duckett drunk and disoriented. Stokes did not address the specific allegations, instead stressing that player welfare was his overriding concern as England prepare for the fourth Test in Melbourne.




England cricket chief Rob Key has since pledged to investigate the claims, while the ECB said it is intent on establishing the facts.

Writing in his Telegraph column, Vaughan cut through the noise with a blunt defence of the players. “I am not going to criticise England for what they got up to in Noosa,” Vaughan wrote. “I criticise what they do on the cricket field, the way they play, and the way they prepare to play cricket.”

Vaughan admitted the footage was not flattering, but said singling out Duckett was unfair. “I am not going to point the finger at a group of young people who have had a few beers on a couple of days off,” he said. “I did exactly the same as them when I played for England, although I did at least know when it was time to go home, and that is probably what Ben Duckett needs to learn.”


The former skipper then added that it is a systemic issue rather than an individual failing. “Duckett should not be reprimanded at all on the evidence we have seen, and neither should the other players,” Vaughan argued. “It is a wider issue: the game of cricket has created this drinking culture.”

According to Vaughan, this culture is not unique to England. “England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa all have the same culture,” he wrote. “You give a group of young people three or four days off to relax, and they’re going to do something like this.”