New Delhi: England batter Ben Duckett has spoken about the incident that led him to be sent home from their 2017-18 Ashes series in Australia.
The opener poured a drink over team-mate James Anderson for which he was sanctioned with a fine and suspension by the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Duckett had played in only four Tests before that indiscretion, two in India and two in Bangladesh. He returned to the national team set-up only at the end of 2018.
The incident happened in the third match in Perth at a bar. England were 0-2 down and were under pressure on the field with their behviour being monitored off the field.
“Jimmy actually threw a drink on me, but no one knows about that,” Duckett told The Final Word podcast, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
“And then said, ‘oh, we’re just messing around. You can just lob one on my head. That’s fine.’ Genuinely. So then I just poured one on his head and the security guard saw me from the ECB, who looks after us, and it filtered back.
“That was kind of basically the story. We carried on the rest of the night together, getting on well. That’s the story that’s got blown up,” he added.
“Then obviously when things start getting out in the media and everyone’s saying all this stuff, then everyone believes that like that. And as soon as a story or a headline’s out there, ‘well that’s what happened then’.
“But then you can’t really come out and say what I’ve just said, because I’m a young lad trying to break into the England team. It’s one of the best ever England players, you know? And people didn’t really want to hear me.”
‘Tough time’
Duckett said it was a dark ohase in his career as he didn’t get much sympathy in Australia though his team-mates rallied around him.
“It was actually a really, really tough time. People look back and it’s probably funny and stuff like that. But when you’re in Australia and you’re kind of being told you can’t go to training, you can’t play – it’s a lonely place for a 22-year-old.
“And being in Australia, you’re not getting much sympathy from any anyone out there, are you? But yeah, it was one of those things where… it feels like your world’s ending. The time difference, you’re not speaking to family much. The lads around me in that group at the time were amazing,” the left hander said.
