The wk-batter Ben Duckett has opened up on the drink throw incident that led to his exclusion during the 2017-18 Ashes series. He revealed that James Anderson, the first pacer to pick 700 wickets threw a drink over him first, which prompted Duckett to reciprocate.
It was supposed to be a playful exchange that took place at Perth’s Avenue Bar before the third test, amidst increasing scrutiny of the England team’s off-field behaviour.
When the situation became serious, Ben Duckett was eager to prove himself having previously earned four test caps on tours of Bangladesh and India. However, the incident resulted in a fine and suspension from ECB and was sent home which delayed his return to the Lions setup until 2018.
“It’s a fairly trivial incident but, in the current climate, it’s just not acceptable”. Anderson said what he regarded as “a pretty silly incident”. said Ben Duckett.
“Jimmy actually threw a drink on me, but no one knows about that,” Duckett told on a podcast. “And then said, ‘oh, we’re just messing around. You can just lob one on my head.”
“That’s fine.’ Genuinely. So then I just poured one on his head and the security guard saw me from the ECB, who looks after us, and it filtered back.
“That was kind of basically the story. We carried on the rest of the night together, getting on well. That’s the story that’s got blown up.”
“Then obviously when things start getting out in the media and everyone’s saying all this stuff, then everyone believes that like that. And as soon as a story or a headline’s out there, ‘well that’s what happened then’.
“But then you can’t really come out and say what I’ve just said, because I’m a young lad trying to break into the England team. It’s one of the best ever England players, you know? And people didn’t really want to hear me.
“It was actually a really, really tough time. People look back and it’s probably funny and stuff like that. But when you’re in Australia and you’re kind of being told you can’t go to training, you can’t play – it’s a lonely place for a 22-year-old.
“And being in Australia, you’re not getting much sympathy from any anyone out there, are you? But yeah, it was one of those things where… it feels like your world’s ending.”
“The time difference, you’re not speaking to family much. The lads around me in that group at the time were amazing.”
While Duckett feared his future after the 2017-18 winter, he believes the resolve it brought has been an integral part of the side to develop as a mainstay across all three formats.
“It’s not that moment that was the issue. It was, you know, for the next 12 months, it was, ‘you’re basically on hold now for a little while’. For a 23 [year-old]… that’s kind of a bad time to basically get told you’ve got no chance here.
“It does make you grow up a little bit faster and stuff and dealing with what I had to deal with probably made me a little bit more resilient as a person and probably a bit tougher.
“All these things now, in a really weird way, I wouldn’t change much of it because, where I am right now when I play for England, it’s like I don’t want to give that shirt to anyone else.
“I’ve probably not made things easy at times. I’m not a saint and an angel, and I probably was an easy target at the time. That would be the only thing I’ll say – whether it was dealt right or wrong, that’s for people to make their own mind up.”
Duckett believes the challenges he faced were integral to his development as a player. He has no regrets about his past and considers it as a necessary part of his growth in becoming a mainstay in the England team.
