LONDON: Ashley Giles admits he would have considered sending
home some of England’s players for bad behaviour during their Ashes
tour of Australia.
England’s poor performances on the
pitch, which have seen them lose the series ahead of the start of the
fourth Test on Boxing Day, have been compounded by incidents off it.
Ben
Duckett, who is not part of the full Ashes squad but was in Australia
to play for England Lions, was given a suspension and a fine by the
England and Wales Cricket Board for throwing a drink over Test
vice-captain James Anderson.
England star Jonny Bairstow
was involved in a bizarre head-butt incident with Australia’s Cameron
Bancroft during a night out in Perth.
Ben Stokes, an
England all-rounder, is out of the international frame while waiting to
discover whether he will be charged for an alleged late-night brawl
before the Ashes tour in Bristol in September.
Former
spinner Giles, who played 54 Test matches for England and later worked
as a national team selector, believes some of the current crop of
players has lacked maturity.
“I think I would have been
very tempted [to send some home],” Giles told BBC Radio 5 Live on
Sunday. “There comes a time when there’s enough water gone under the
bridge, a lot of it not very nice water, you have to make a stand and
we’re probably past that point.
“The whole thing sheds a
bad light on England cricket but I think what we have to remember is
these guys are extremely talented cricketers and they’ve got a great
gift in what they do.
“It doesn’t make them extremely mature individuals. And there’s work to do there.
“If the maturity isn’t there in the dressing room then they need quite strict guidelines and rules.
“Over time, if you can’t trust people to make correct decisions off the field, how can you trust them to make them on the field?