In a shocking turn of events, England have reportedly banned all centrally-contracted players who were involved in last winter’s Ashes series from speaking to the media. This decision comes amid the growing uncertainty regarding Brendon McCullum’s future as head coach following England’s 1-4 loss in the Ashes in Australia last winter. Off-field controversies have also been a cause of concern, especially the ones involving Harry Brook in New Zealand, when he was struck by a bouncer.
According to a report from i Paper, the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) sent out a memo to counties on Thursday, March 12, instructing them to pull all pre-arranged media interviews with players who travelled Down Under over the winter.
The ECB confirmed to The i Paper the blanket ban on all Ashes participants speaking ahead of the start of the summer, with one source admitting it was an attempt to “control the message”.
“They are our players so they’ll speak when on England duty,” the ECB source was quoted as saying in the aforementioned report.
It is interesting to note that the gag orders come on the same day as the first-ever auction in the Men’s Hundred.
Talking about County Cricket, the 18 teams will hold their pre-season media days in the next few weeks, with 11 of the Ashes squad who are not involved in the Indian Premier League (IPL) initially being made available to reporters and TV networks.
However, the directive from the ECB now means those players – captain Ben Stokes, Gus Atkinson, Brook, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Josh Tongue, Mark Wood and Shoaib Bashir – have been effectively barred from speaking to the media before they join up ahead of the first Test of the summer against New Zealand at Lord’s in June.
The Kiwis will arrive in England to play three Tests in June. The first two Tests will be held in London, with Lord’s hosting the first and Kennington Oval hosting the second. Meanwhile, Trent Bridge, Nottingham, is the venue for the final match of the series.
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