‘Be Adults, Look after Yourselves’: Joe Root’s message to England team amid no-curfew stance

England Test captain Joe Root has urged his teammates to be ‘adults’ and take responsibility for their actions both on and off the field, while dismissing a midnight curfew within the camp. Root, who is readying to lead England in his second spell as the Test captain against Pakistan, confirmed that there would be no curfew in place during his time. His comments came on the back of the ECB placing a curfew on team members during home and away tours, especially after Harry Brook and Ben Stokes’ instances, which later led to Stokes’ shock retirement from international cricket.

That was followed by Test head coach Brendon McCullum’s sacking, with the ECB appointing McCullum’s compatriot Stephen Fleming as his replacement. Although he is set to join the squad later, Marcus Trescothick will oversee the proceedings in the upcoming three-match series, starting in Leeds on August 19.

Curfew Breach in London

After England beat New Zealand in the first Test at Lord’s, captain Stokes and fast bowler Gus Atkinson were part of an incident at a London nightclub past the midnight curfew.

What followed later changed England’s Test cricket scene.

A brawl broke out between the players and Totoa Auvaa, a 21-year-old academy rugby player for Saracens, which led to the ECB suspending the cricketers on disciplinary grounds. They missed the second Test but returned for the decisive one at Trent Bridge.

Midway through the third Test, the ECB publicly announced Stokes’ decision to relinquish Test captaincy and step aside from international cricket.
England managing director Rob Key established the curfew, which came about after white-ball captain Harry Brook was fined for an altercation with a bouncer in New Zealand last November.

"There's not going to be a curfew. I don't think this needs to be a big deal, to be honest,” Root said on Sky Cricket’s podcast. "My view on curfews is I don't think they work, and if you want guys to take responsibility on the field they've got to be able to feel they can be grown adults off it and make good strong decisions off it.

"That's for us as a team to manage well, and self-police well, for me and 'Flem' (new red-ball coach Stephen Fleming) to manage well in many ways but ultimately you're grown adults, you know what it takes to play for England, you know what your responsibilities are off the field and we need to make sure we don't find ourselves with any little situations off the field."

Root, 35, who will again lead England in the whites, asked his teammates to act like adults and take care of themselves and English cricket.

"We should be known for how we play our cricket and what we do on the field; we should be on the back pages of the newspapers and people reading about that sort of stuff," said Root. "Be adults, look after yourselves, look after each other, create a good strong culture when you know when the right time is to celebrate and enjoy a win or to have a sensible beer or whatever, but remember you're playing for England."