England had a trip to Noosa after the Brisbane Test.
As if losing the Ashes 2025 inside three games wasn’t enough, England players have come under heavy scrutiny for their trip to Noosa midway through the rubber. To recharge themselves, the English side had a trip to the affluent resort town on the Queensland coast, which was Brendon McCullum’s plan.
However, after the Adelaide defeat, reports surfaced suggesting it resembled a stag do more than a recharge camp, with players accused of indulging in heavy drinking. England’s managing director, Rob Key, has stated that he read what has been written about players and assured a detailed investigation into what happened in Noosa.
Ahead of the Boxing Day Test, Key, who didn’t travel with England players and staff to Noosa, confirmed at the MCG that “he will be looking into it”. He added that he doesn’t expect players from an international team to be involved in excessive drinking and was told that they all behaved well.
“If there are things where people are saying that our players went out and drank excessively, then of course we’ll be looking into that. Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol for an international cricket team is not something that I’d expect to see at any stage, and it would be a fault not to look into what happened there. But from everything that I’ve heard so far, they were very well behaved.”
After their second consecutive defeat in Brisbane, England decided to travel to Noosa as initially planned, despite their performances and lack of preparation being heavily criticised. A few reports confirm that some players drank for two days in Brisbane before four additional days in Noosa, making the whole thing a glorified stag do.
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Only Joe Root wasn’t spotted near the bar and stayed away in a resort, while others were involved in drinking by the side of the road with Akubra hats on. England’s strength and conditioning coach, Pete Sim, asked the entire group for an early morning run along the Coast, but only three players – Jamie Smith, Shoaib Bashir, and Josh Tongue – turned up.
Moreover, Ben Stokes suggested a 12 km run to the summit and back of Noosa National Park, but no one entertained the prospect, and the English captain ended up training alone. Harry Brook later went on to say that cricket wasn’t even discussed on the trip, which, while an exaggeration, wasn’t ideal for a team 2-0 behind and on the verge of losing another Ashes.
Since McCullum and Stokes took charge, their professionalism has been questioned on several occasions; this Noosa trip, after which England suffered a series-defining defeat, has eclipsed all previous scrutiny. Results eventually dictate everything, and with them not going England’s way, this backlash was inevitable.
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