ENGLAND FURY OVER LEAKED BOOZING FILM

ECB WANT TO KNOW HOW FOOTAGE APPARENTLY SHOT BY COACH THORPE ENDED UP IN AUSSIE MEDIA

- Will Macpherson

FURIOUS England management are investigating why an incident featuring Joe Root, James Anderson and Tasmanian police was filmed — seemingly by assistant coach Graham Thorpe — then leaked to the Australian media.

Footage emerged in Australia today of England captain Root, legendary bowler Anderson and a number of their Australian counterparts — Nathan Lyon, Travis Head and Alex Carey — drinking together after the sun had come up on Monday, the morning after the Ashes series concluded in Hobart.

Other players had been with them until a short while before, but had returned to their hotel rooms. It is standard procedure for the two teams to get together for a drink at the conclusion of a long series, and in this case that happened back at the team hotel, rather than Bellerive Oval’s changing rooms because of the day-night match’s late finish. England are due to fly home from Australia after their Ashes humbling.

Australian law enforcement is infamously officious and Tasmanian police attended a terrace on the fourth floor of the Crowne Plaza, the hotel the teams shared in Hobart, after a noise complaint from a local resident.