How to win back Ashes? England must grow up and ditch outdated culture

By 2008, however, the culture had been transformed. British athletes were there not to have a good time but to win. No alcohol. Decent sleep. Scrupulous preparation. Not going out on the tiles when team-mates had to compete the next day so as not to wake them up. You might call it professionalism. And you know what? Although it was a rather more stringent experience, there was a deeper, more meaningful kind of satisfaction to be had at the end of it. The kind that comes from digging deep to achieve a lifetime objective. Team GB returned home with 20 golds.

I don’t know the inside story of this English cricket squad. I am guessing only the players, coaches and perhaps security guards know what has gone on. But when you see how inebriated Ben Duckett appeared to be and other stories of heavy drinking in Noosa (one report likened it to a “stag do”), coming on top of drink-related “incidents” on the Ashes tours of 2017-18 and 2021-22 (on the former, Duckett poured a drink over the head of James Anderson in Perth), it does seem fair to say that the culture of the England squad is more like that of Team GB circa 1992 than 2008.

Perhaps none of this would matter if England had won, or were at least still in with a shout. Stories about excess tend to be rather muted when things are going well. But when a team have lost three Tests in 11 days, and the management is under scrutiny for all sorts of reasons, it is bound to feel rather different. Indeed, it seems to this observer that the culture of English cricket has — how can I put this? — a bit of growing up to do.

I know there is a risk of sounding a tad po-faced, but this isn’t my intention at all. For the avoidance of doubt, I had a whale of a time in Barcelona in 1992. I really did. But I nevertheless look back on it with deep and lasting regret. I was in the form of my life. I could have won a medal. But when I found myself game point up against the world champion, Jorgen Persson (having defeated two players already), I was breathing fractionally harder than I should have been. Small margins matter in elite sport. He roared back to win.

The question the England players need to ask themselves is: did we do everything possible to give ourselves the chance to win? It is so easy to justify a drink or two. Or perhaps three. It is always possible to justify a bit less sleep, a little less time in the nets, a bit more time on the beach. It is easy to point to good old Ian “Beefy” Botham and Allan Lamb, who liked a few large ones in an era when professional footballers also drank to excess, often the night before games. If they did it, why not me?

But is this the best way to win the Ashes today? Does it represent best practice when you compare it with the finest teams in the world?

Football’s culture has been transformed over the past two decades — one thinks of Harry Kane, who is as fastidious in his approach as any Olympian, and Declan Rice, who famously said in the build-up to the European Championship final in 2024 that he would drink his first pint if the team came through. Or look at top tennis players such as Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who sustained astonishingly high levels of performance through scrupulous self-management.

I remember talking to Djokovic after he won the 2012 Australian Open and he said his treat was to allow a single corner of a chocolate bar to melt on his tongue before throwing the rest in the bin. “That is what it takes to get to No1,” he said.

Perhaps you’ll say this is a bit over the top. Maybe it isn’t for you. But this is what elite sport looks like in the 21st century. The question for the England cricket players and management is simple and one they should answer honestly: is this what our culture looks like? And if not, why not?

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