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England and Australia have been competing in the iconic cricket showdown known as “The Ashes” since the 19th century, and the boys hailing from the United Kingdom headed into this year’s series hoping to get their first outright win in a decade. However, that did not end up being the case, and the squad is under fire over allegations of excessive drinking leading up to the test that sealed their fate.
I’m not going to pretend I have an encyclopedic knowledge of the sport of cricket, but even I know there’s no bigger spectacle than the biannual meeting between England and Australia that’s referred to as “The Ashes.”
That competition, which is basically the cricket equivalent of the Ryder Cup, was held for the first time in 1882. England was initially the team to beat, but Australia was eventually able to claw back and headed into this year’s tilt boasting a 35-32-7 record in the series.
England entered the 74th iteration of The Ashes in search of its first win since 2015, and while there are still two more tests to play, they’ll only be able to earn some moral victories after Australia leveraged home-field advantage and sealed a victory by pulling out to a 3-0 lead with a win in the third match on Sunday.
That marked the swiftest defeat any team has suffered since 2002, and members of the losing side are facing scrutiny for their behavior leading up to it.
England’s cricket team has been accused of going on a booze-fueled bender in Australia before losing The Ashes
The Ashes kicked off in Perth on November 21st, and Australia pulled out to a 2-0 lead in Brisbane after a three-day affair that ended on December 7th before the two teams met in Adelaide on the 17th for what ended up being the deciding showdown.
England’s players did not head back to the United Kingdom in between tests, and according to the BBC, they spent the bulk of the interim between the second and the third in Noosa, a resort town just north of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast.
They had a fair amount of time to kill, and there was evidence that suggested some players devoted a solid chunk of it to getting their drink on—including a video that purportedly captured a visibly intoxicated Ben Duckett (who was sent home over a beer-related incident in 2017) outside a pub.
Duckket helping the economy big time pic.twitter.com/FXyoMUyjIx
— Liverwood (@21_liverwood) December 23, 2025
English cricket director Rob Key, who did not join the team in Noosa, responded to the allegations that framed their break as a bender while stressing he was taking them with a grain of salt, saying:
“Stories of players drinking six days solid, that’s unacceptable. We’ll be looking into seeing what the facts are as opposed to the things that have been embellished or elaborated on.
When you see a picture of five or six guys sitting down for lunch, a couple of them having drinks, you need to see what’s going on with that. If it’s true that it became a stag do and people are out drinking all the time excessively, that’s not acceptable.
I don’t agree with a drinking culture. I don’t like a drinking culture.”
The fourth test will get underway in Melbourne on December 26th, and things will wrap up in Sydney toward the beginning of January.