\n<\/p>\n
England were “feckless, reckless and legless” on their dismal Ashes tour of Australia, according to the editor of the prestigious Wisden Almanack.<\/b><\/p>\n
Ben Stokes’ side were beaten 4-1 on a trip dogged by poor on-field performances, sloppy preparation and allegations of a drinking culture.<\/p>\n
Lawrence Booth delivered his damning assessment in the influential editor’s notes of the 163rd edition of the Almanack, which is published on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“England arrived for the Ashes hell-bent on making history, and ended up being laughed out of town,” wrote Booth.<\/p>\n
“England were feckless, reckless and legless. A trip supposed to define an era, described by Brendon McCullum as ‘the biggest series of all our lives’, descended into dilettantism. What a waste. What a shame.<\/p>\n
“In the game’s long history, it is hard to think of a privilege so carelessly squandered, a chance so blithely spurned. A successful assault on Australia requires blood, sweat and tears, not dribs, drabs and vibes.”<\/p>\n
England Test captain Stokes, head coach Brendon McCullum and director of cricket Rob Key remained in their posts following a review of the Ashes series conducted by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).<\/p>\n
Booth said England should have come clean much sooner about an incident involving white-ball captain Harry Brook on the tour of New Zealand that preceded the Ashes.<\/p>\n
Brook was punched by a nightclub bouncer of the eve of a one-day international in Wellington in October, but the altercation did not come to light until it was reported in the Telegraph after the fifth Ashes Test in January.<\/p>\n
“Three weeks before the Perth Test was plenty of time to hold Brook to account in public, and remind the players that they had a (well-paid) job to do in Australia,” said Booth.<\/p>\n
“Four years after England’s previous Ashes misadventure had sparked headlines about a drinking culture, it was all depressingly familiar.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
England were “feckless, reckless and legless” on their dismal Ashes tour of Australia, according to the editor of the prestigious Wisden Almanack. Ben Stokes’ side were beaten 4-1 on a trip dogged by poor on-field performances, sloppy preparation and allegations of a drinking culture. Lawrence Booth delivered his damning assessment in the influential editor’s notes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}