“I’m not sure sportsmen should be held to a higher standard than anyone else, but an England cricketer does have a public profile and, therefore, has greater responsibility as a result. As a new captain setting out his expectations, Root could not have been clearer on that. Sanctimony may be the default reaction but should be avoided. Equally, sympathy should be in short supply given the broader context. Carse was in New Zealand and Australia as part of the squad whose discipline was questioned. First came Harry Brook, decked by a bouncer outside a nightclub before an ODI in Wellington. Then came Ben Duckett filmed the worse for wear in Noosa. Then came defeat, and the inevitable backlash, and then Stokes and Atkinson during the New Zealand series. Context cannot be ignored. Among the raft of recent stories, there are some important differences, though. Unlike Brook in Wellington, this was after a county match, not before an international, and Carse was not on England duty. Unlike Stokes, he was not breaking a curfew he had helped to put in place. That said, he now finds himself at the mercy of not just the regulator but also a new captain and coach who will be keen to draw a line under such nonsense,’ Atherton wrote in his column for The Times.

Carse, who was the leading wicket-taker for England in this year’s Ashes with a total of 22 wickets in the series, was seen in handcuffs in videos as reported by The Telegraph and other England media with local police authorities seen holding the pacer. In the video, former England captain Ben Stokes and Matthew Potts could be seen standing at a distance with their Durham team-mate in handcuffs. Later the local police authorities de-arrested Carse and the pacer left the area. “A man in his 30s was arrested on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly in Derby city centre on Saturday night, 22 August. However the man was de-arrested shortly afterwards having agreed to leave the area,” the police statement read as reported by BBC.

Atherton had started his column highlighting the fact that Carse became the third such England cricketer to be removed from the England squad. While the former England captain wrote that it’s not clear what Carse did, Atherton also shared how the pacer was unlikely to escape sanctions. “The inevitable came to pass on Monday. Brydon Carse became the third England cricketer this summer to be removed from a Test match squad pending an investigation by the cricket regulator. It happened to Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson against New Zealand, and Carse was unlikely to escape similar sanction once footage appeared of him being handcuffed by police outside a nightclub in Derby in the early hours of Sunday. There is a weary repetitiveness to opening the laptop to write about this stuff and I find myself having to work hard not to slip into sanctimony, but work hard I will. While it is obviously right that Carse has been dropped pending the outcome of the investigation, I cannot get myself into a lather about a cricketer going out to celebrate a win after a match, unless he has done something demonstrably wrong. As yet, we don’t know that he has done anything wrong, ill judged though this appears,” added Atherton.

Last year, England white-ball captain Harry Brooks was fined 30,000 Euros after he was involved in an incident with a club bouncer during England’s tour to New Zealand and it was followed by England opener Ben Duckett being photographed in a drunken state at Noosa during the break in the Ashes in Australia. The England Cricket Board had imposed the night curfew restriction on the team early this year before Stokes and Atkinson broke during the New Zealand series at home. Post Stokes retirement, new captain Joe Root had announced that there will be no curfews for the players with the players responsible for their actions. Atherton further wrote how Root was right but Carse’s act was precisely the situation Root had warned the team. “What is undeniably true is that he (Brydon Carse) found himself in precisely the situation the new captain Joe Root, warned against in the week before the first Test against Pakistan. Root’s first act was to get rid of the curfew imposed after a slew of off-field stories in the winter and early summer. He was right to do so, by the way, regardless of what has happened here. Even if there had been a curfew in place, it is likely that Carse would not have been in breach of it, given he was on Durham, not England, duty at the time. In removing the curfew, Root was absolutely clear about his expectations, though,” Atherton wrote.