Ashes 2025: ECB investigating Ben Duckett video amid drinking allegations

The England and Wales Cricket (ECB) is seeking to verify a video that appears to show England‘s Ben Duckett drunk and unable to find his way back to the team hotel during the squad’s mini-break to Noosa between the second and third Ashes Tests.

The video emerged on X- formerly known as Twitter- on Tuesday, hours after men’s managing director Rob Key confirmed there would be an investigation into the trip to the Sunshine Coast resort town, which followed an eight-wicket defeat in Brisbane that put them 2-0 down in the series.

The four days in Noosa, which the ECB stressed was not a holiday, had been organised a year in advance by head coach Brendon McCullum, who believed it would refresh the players. A number of the squad leaned into the time-off, with no training scheduled during this period.

While England went on to put in their best showing of the tour in Adelaide, they succumbed to an 82-run defeat as Australia took an unassailable lead in the five-match series, retaining the Ashes inside just 11 days.

Speaking at the MCG ahead of the fourth Test in Melbourne, which begins on Friday, Key said he would look into the trip but believed the players had been “very well behaved”.

A statement from the ECB read: “We are aware of content circulating on social media.

“We have high expectations for behaviour, accepting that players are often under intense levels of scrutiny, with established processes that we follow when conduct falls below expectations. We also support players that need assistance.

“We will not comment further at this stage while we establish the facts.”

Having been one of England’s more reliable batters, Duckett has had a tough Ashes series with just 97 runs at an average of 16.16 putting him bottom of the tourists’ specialist batters on both metrics, with a top score of 29.

The 31-year-old has also had previous on Ashes tours. Eight years ago, while part of the Lions squad for the 2017-18 series, he was sent home with a fine and suspension by the ECB for pouring a drink over James Anderson in the Avenue Bar in Perth. (ESPNcricinfo)