‘Brook should’ve been suspended’ - Michael Vaughan slams ECB over handling of controversy

With controversy surrounding Harry Brook after reports emerged of his involvement in a late-night altercation with a nightclub bouncer during England’s tour of New Zealand, where they lost 3-0, former England player Michael Vaughan has criticised the cricket board’s handling of the situation.

Vaughan stated that Brook should have been suspended for that game and emphasised that such issues should be addressed immediately, rather than being kept under the radar and allowed to fester over the years.

“The ECB pushed it under the carpet. They said they threw the kitchen sink in with a fine, but for it to have come out just a couple of days ago on the back of a poor Ashes series where performance levels have been indifferent, the loose nature of the preparation has been a big question mark about the team,” Vaughan told Fox Cricket.

“My experience from these kinds (of incidents) is you’ve got to hit the nail on the head at the time it happens, because once it comes out afterwards, ‘why did they brush it under the carpet’? So the England captain was able to go out the night before, have a fracas with a bouncer then still play – probably on the same day. That can’t be right … He should’ve been suspended for that game. Then you deal with it there and then,” he added.

Vaughan also dismissed suggestions that the incident was kept under wraps to avoid derailing the Ashes, which followed the New Zealand tour. He noted that while controversies are inevitable, attempts to hide them to protect Ashes preparations only backfired, as the issue resurfaced and disrupted the team’s rhythm during the series.

“I had no problems with Noosa, but I do have a problem with Noosa on the back of them hiding something in New Zealand that they didn’t tell us about. So clearly there’s a lot of conversations to be had and understanding of what is right and what is wrong. When I see things like that and hear things like that, I always go: ‘What don’t we know?,’” said Vaughan.

“I think there’ll be a lot of conversations over the next week or two about the leadership group – and that goes right to the highest level, because the CEO and the chairman of the ECB would’ve known about that. I get your point in terms of trying to hide it from the Ashes because you don’t want it to derail you, but you could probably argue it did derail the Ashes – because it wasn’t sorted there and then and players had this loose nature for a good few weeks,” he added.