The drama about the drinks controversy after the Ashes 2023 concluded continues to unfold bit by bit. It is now Australia’s talisman batsman Steve Smith who has come out and made a sensational revelation about England captain Ben Stokes.
As the tradition had been in the Ashes series that the England and Australia players meet up and have drinks together after the series gets over.
This time, though, it was reported that it didn’t happen. England skipper Ben Stokes then tweeted saying that because of the retirements of Stuart Broad and Moeen Ali, they took longer in the dressing room, but, Stokes added, the players did have drinks together at the same bar.
Travis Head recently stated that the meeting between England and Australian players was only accidental and it wasn’t by design as the English players didn’t go to drinks with them.
Steve Smith backs Travis Head’s claims
Now Steve Smith has revealed that it was Ben Stokes who himself told Smith to wait for a couple of more minutes but they didn’t come out for over an hour and hence the Aussies had to leave without them. Steve Smith said that it was the first time in his career that the players from the two teams didn’t have drinks together after an Ashes series.
Speaking to SEN 1170’s “The Run Home,” Steve Smith said: “We did knock on the door a couple of times. We were waiting around a while and Stokesy came out at one point and said ‘Two minutes,’ and about an hour passed. We thought, ‘We can’t keep sitting here. Are we going to have a beer or not?'”
“The guys got a bit fed up and decided it was time to go. It was unfortunate, it was the first time in my career that we’ve not had a drink with them after a series and it was a bit of a shame.”
Travis Head had told a similar story to Steve Smith.
“In terms of it, it’s been played up a little bit,” Head said on the Willow Talk podcast. “Post-match, I think we hung around for a little bit. They had a couple of retirements, and, I think, a few staff that was going. We sort of knocked a couple of times and got told two minutes, which turned into an hour, and the boys got a bit fed up.”
Talking about Steve Smith, the Aussie star batter is getting ready for a new role: T20 opener. With Aaron Finch retiring, Smith has now been slotted as opener for Australia’s next T20I series against South Africa. Smith smashed a couple of centuries in the BBL last year while opening and that was the motivation behind this move from the Aussie selectors.
“They said they were going to give me an opportunity up the top a couple of weeks ago. It was something I jumped at, I haven’t done a great deal of it. It was something I did in the Big Bash, I had a bit of success up there. It’s the place you want to bat, probably, in T20 cricket or white-ball cricket all together.”
