Joe Root’s first press conference of the Lord’s Test week should have been about an innings-and-103-run win. Instead, England’s captain spent it answering for a video of Brydon Carse in handcuffs outside an Irish bar in Derby city centre.
“If I’m being brutally honest, I’m really hacked off,” Root said. “I’m really disappointed that, after last week’s performance, we’re sat here and we’re talking about something that is not related to it at all.”
Carse, 31, was removed from England’s squad for the second Rothesay Test against Pakistan, which begins at Lord’s on Thursday. Hampshire seamer Sonny Baker has been called up in his place, and the independent Cricket Regulator has opened an investigation following a referral from the ECB.
What happened outside Molly Malone’s
Carse had been released to play for Durham in the County Championship after missing selection for the first Test at Headingley. He took two wickets as the Division Two leaders beat Derbyshire — a match in which Ben Stokes claimed five — and the squad celebrated in Derby on Saturday night.
Footage that circulated on social media shows Carse surrounded by police officers and being led away from Molly Malone’s Irish Tavern, with team-mate Matthew Potts alongside him and Stokes visible in the scene. Derbyshire Constabulary confirmed a man in his 30s was arrested on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly in the city centre on Saturday night, and was de-arrested shortly afterwards having agreed to leave the area. He spent a short spell in the cells and faces no charge.
Root said Carse was “very upset, has been very apologetic, and understands his actions”, and drew a line under the specifics: “There’s not a lot I can say on it. It’s in their hands now.”
Not an isolated incident — and Root knows it
The captain’s anger was aimed at the pattern rather than the man. “It’s not the isolated incident itself,” Root said. “It’s the fact we continually keep making stupid mistakes away from the game and it’s detracting from what we are doing on the field.”
The list he was referring to has grown steadily over ten months:
- October 2025, Wellington: Harry Brook was struck by a bouncer after being refused entry to a nightclub, with Jacob Bethell and Josh Tongue present. He was fined a reported £30,000 and given a final warning — sanctions that only became public months later.
- December 2025, Noosa: Ben Duckett was filmed disoriented on a night out during the Ashes tour, unable to recall where the team hotel was. Rob Key ordered a review of the squad’s drinking culture.
- June 2026, London: Stokes, then captain, and Gus Atkinson were stood down from a Test against New Zealand after a late night following England’s win at Lord’s. No regulatory breach was found. Stokes retired from the captaincy weeks later; Brendon McCullum lost his job.
The timing is what stings. Root, restored to the Test captaincy for a second stint this month, scrapped the ECB’s midnight curfew before the Pakistan series precisely to signal trust. “Ultimately you’re grown adults,” he said at the time. “You know what it takes to play for England, you know what your responsibilities are off the field.”
Six days later, that policy is a stick to beat him with. Root did not retreat from it, but he conceded the ledger has swung the other way: “It’s not going to happen overnight, but in many ways we are going to have to earn a lot of trust back. Clearly we are not portraying ourselves how we want to.”
What it means at Lord’s and beyond
On the field, England can absorb the loss. Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue took eight wickets apiece at Headingley and Jofra Archer added three as Pakistan were bowled out for 135 in 37.3 overs to lose inside three days. Carse was not in that XI. Baker, uncapped in Tests, arrives as cover rather than a certain selection.
The regulatory risk is heavier. Carse served a three-month ban in 2024 for betting offences, which means the Regulator will be weighing a second disciplinary matter against a player with prior sanction — and doing so in a season when the ECB has already discussed an outright alcohol ban for the men’s team.
Root’s problem is structural, not procedural. A dressing room that keeps generating off-field headlines in a summer of transition — new captain, new coaching setup, an Ashes winter ahead — will find its cricket increasingly discussed as a footnote. He has now said as much, publicly, on the record.
Sources: [Sky Sports](https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/12040/13576318/brydon-carse-ecb-investigating-after-england-seamer-handcuffed-by-police-outside-derby-nightclub), [Sky Sports — squad change](https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/12123/13576549/brydon-carse-to-miss-englands-second-test-vs-pakistan-as-cricket-regulator-conducts-investigation-into-nightclub-incident), [North Norfolk News (PA)](https://www.northnorfolknews.co.uk/sport/national/26494140.really-hacked-off—joe-root-rages-latest-drinking-drama-hit-england/), [iNFOnews](https://infonews.ca/news/7829581/english-cricket-and-its-drinking-problem-another-nightclub-incident-leaves-root-hacked-off/), [ESPNcricinfo match report](https://www.cricinfo.com/series/pakistan-tour-in-england-2026-1496563/england-vs-pakistan-1st-test-1496582/match-report), [ITV News](https://www.itv.com/news/central/2026-08-24/ecb-investigates-late-night-incident-involving-england-fast-bowler-brydon-carse)
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
672 articles published
