England captain Root ‘hacked off’ with Carse’s handcuff row ahead of Lord’s Test against Pakistan

Barely a week after England Test captain Joe Root urged his teammates to be ‘man enough and responsible role models’, another case of a drunken English cricketer creating disorder made headlines. While it was Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson who put England’s dressing room under scrutiny for its drinking culture, seamer Brydon Carse’s handcuff row made things worse. ‘Hacked off’ with this latest incident, Root said he was disappointed that matters not relating to cricket are at the forefront for the second time this summer.

Carse was filmed in handcuffs while celebrating Durham’s win over Derbyshire on Saturday night. The police on Monday confirmed that he had been briefly arrested on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly before he was de-arrested. The Cricket Regulator is investigating the matter, and the ECB has dropped him from the second Test against Pakistan at Lord’s, starting Thursday.

Meanwhile, Root revealed he spoke with ‘upset and apologetic’ Carse about the incident, and that he had a ‘very robust discussion' with his players since arriving in London on Monday.

"If I'm being brutally honest, I'm really hacked off," Root said, speaking at Lord's on Tuesday. "I'm really disappointed that after last week's performance, we sat here and we're talking about something nothing related to it at all.

"In terms of the incident itself, it's obviously with the Regulator. There's not a lot I can say on it. It's in their hands now. I've spoken to Brydon. When I first found out, my first concern was him as a person, as someone I've spent a lot of time with [and who has] been involved in this dressing-room,” he added.

While late-night drinking episodes have largely contributed to England’s loss lately, Root stands by his words of urging his teammates to behave like adults and take responsibility for their actions.

"I still don't believe that's the way to go," he said. “It's important we create something bigger than that. It's about having something long-lasting that we can be proud of, that we can pass on to the next generation of players for them to evolve and be proud of.”

Root’s Message to Teammates

Keeping a cool head despite growing frustrations, Root said the dressing room has been far from portraying its true self, and that they have an opportunity to make things better.

"What I will say is that actually, we have an opportunity moving forward," Root said. "Clearly, we're not portraying ourselves how we want to, and I think we've got an opportunity to build a culture that's very strong, something that we can be proud of, that's player-driven.

"Of course, that's not going to happen overnight. We've already had conversations as a team about what is expected from this group of players, what it means to play for England, what it takes to play for England. But we want to create something that we can be proud of and people that follow us can be proud of,” he added.