6 min readUpdated: Aug 24, 2026 09:24 PM IST
England pacer Brydon Carse being handcuffed outside a local pub by the local police authorities in Durham last Saturday is the latest controversy featuring English cricketers in recent months. With videos of the 31-old pacer, who was in the England team for the three Test series against Pakistan, being reported by The Telegraph and other media in England, the England Cricket Board dropped him from the second Test on Monday.
Following a referral from the ECB, the Cricket Regulator have confirmed that they will investigate events on Saturday night in Derby. Carse will no longer be available for selection for the Second Men’s Rothesay Test Match while this investigation is ongoing and the full facts are obtained. Brydon will be replaced in the squad for this match by Sonny Baker.
England will play Pakistan in the second Test at Lords starting Thursday later this week and former England pacer and Ashes hero Steve Harmison has termed the conversations around such incidents as embarrassing and how the Brydon Carse can be a watershed moment in cricket.
“I think the ECB needs to make a decision whether to keep him in the squad or not. My suspicion is they won’t. I want this to be a watershed moment in cricket and not throw Brydon Carse under the bus and say, ‘right just completely banish him’. Instead of looking at individual problems. Look at the systematic problem that we have in this country. Football learnt very quickly when money came. It had to change. We have to get better, Unfortunately for Brydon Carse, if he is the scapegoat for that, then cricket has got to draw a line in the sand somewhere. Because, we cannot keep having these conversations because it’s embarrassing,” said Harmison while speaking on TalkSport.
Earlier this year, England Test captain Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson breached the night curfew restrictions imposed by ECB and in consideration since the start of the year with the duo involved in a late night altercation outside a pub in Chelsea post the first Test against New Zealand.
While Stokes announced his retirement from international cricket in the third Test of the series, there was a lot of criticism of England Test captain and the management for the incident. Post Stokes retirement, Joe Root was appointed the England Test captain and Stephen Fleming as the new England Test coach and the ECB had removed the night curfew restrictions.
In the videos surfacing over media and reported by English media, Stokes was seen in the background when Carse was handcuffed by the local police authorities. Harmison spoke about how the current incident doesn’t reflect well on the part of the ECB.
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“It does not look good from the England cricket team or the wider game of cricket in general. Joe Root has come out and I thought he was very good, very positive and very concise when he said we are taking away the curfew, we are going to ask the players to take the responsibility and the onus for their careers. And a player that gets left out of that squad. Brydan Carse, he has been unlucky But what I have heard is he is a little bit unlucky. But that statement from ECB I mean this is getting a little bit of an old hat from ECB. From an ECB point of view, whether they have come down harder on their players and try to basically make them like school kids putting a curfew on players. Then taking the curfew away and saying, ‘look, it’s your responsibility as professional sportsmen and role models within the community in the wider game of cricket. It’s probably the right way to go. And then five days later, two of their centrally contracted players are seen in a video, which does not look good and the ramifications for Durham, England and for cricket is just again on the front pages,” Harmison added.
The former England pacer was also asked why such incidents keep happening and the 47-year-old shared how cricket has got a drinking culture and has to solve the problem.
“Why it’s happening, when you look in general. It’s a lot different to football. Cricket, first class game and domestic game, there isn’t a great deal of money. I am not defending them here but cricket has a problem with alcohol. Cricket has got a drinking culture. The England cricket team hasn’t got the drinking culture. Cricket has got a drinking culture, unfortunately. When you have players, who are either on central contracts in franchise tournaments around the world, there is no surprises this is happening just at the back of The Hundred. I am not taking a dig at The Hundred. But if players are playing for a month and are facing or bowling 20 balls twice a week where they can go out and have a beer and recover the next day. Not much practice. The onus is flat. It’s entertainment. For four weeks the players are not under the ECB banner, Same with the IPL and stuff like that. I cannot give you the reason why it’s happening but these players with social media and all should know,” Harmison said.
The former pacer also shared how cricket needs to wake up. “I think cricket needs to really wake up in itself. There’s a hell of a lot of money in the game now. There’s a hell of a lot of scrutiny in the game now, and there’s a hell of an accountability and responsibility should be on the players. At the top level, if we are looking at The Hundred, with a whole new audience looking at these players, and you have seen them as role models and they’re not behaving like role models, that, for me, has to change,” said Harmison.