Home
England’s white-ball captain Harry Brook considers himself fortunate to retain the leadership position after the physical altercation with a night club bouncer in Wellington, New Zealand. Brook once again apologised for his behaviour on the New Zealand tour, labelling it as a 'terrible mistake'.
"Obviously I made a terrible mistake. Not only as a player, but as a captain. It's very unprofessional and I should be leading from the front," Brook said on the eve of the ODI series opener against Sri Lanka in Colombo.
"I've learnt from my mistakes, I've reflected a lot on what's happened and I know it wasn't the right thing to do. I want to say sorry to my team-mates, to all the fans that travel far and wide to watch, spend a lot of money on coming out to watch us play cricket and supporting us, and to the ECB for putting them in a tricky situation, and it'll never happen again. I'm extremely sorry."
ALSO READ: England name playing XI for 1st ODI vs Sri Lanka, Zak Crawley returns after more than 2 years
Brook recalled the incident when the bouncer 'clocked' him for trying to enter the club after having too many drinks prior.
"We went out for a couple of drinks beforehand and then I took it upon myself to go out for a few more and I was on my own there," Brook said.
"I was trying to get into a club and the bouncer just clocked me, unfortunately. Like I said, I shouldn't have been in that situation from the start... I wasn't absolutely leathered, I'd had one too many drinks."
Thoughts of losing captaincy crossed Brook’s mind
Brook feared losing his captaincy but he never through of resigning on his own. He feels that his actions were unacceptable during his maiden ODI series as skipper.
"It (losing captaincy) was definitely going through my mind. Never (resigning as captain) came into my mind. I left that decision to the hierarchy and, look, if they'd have sacked me from being captain, then I'd have been perfectly fine with it, as long as I was still playing cricket for England.
"I think I've got a little bit of work to do to try and regain the trust of the players. I said sorry to them yesterday. I felt like I needed to say sorry for my actions. It's not acceptable as a player, but as a captain it's really not acceptable to do what I did in New Zealand. I'll be the first person to say that. I hold my hands up."
How Stokes reacted to Brook’s nightclub incident?
Brook also revealed how England's Test captain Ben Stokes reacted to the incident ahead of the Ashes 2025-26. Stokes who had himself had a nightclub fight in 2018, helping Brook navigate through it.
"He obviously wasn't best pleased at what I'd done. But he tried to help me through it and he knows exactly what it feels like to be in this situation. We had a few conversations, but we quickly moved on," the 26-year-old said.
Brook, who did not score a single century in the Ashes 2025-26, will have a point to prove in the T20 World Cup 2026. He averages in 30s in both white-ball formats and the T20 World Cup will be a litmus test of his captaincy.
ADVERTISEMENT
