Brook sorry for actions as the Ashes finishes 4-1

ENGLAND’S Harry Brook has issued a public apology for his part in a late night altercation on the pre-Ashes tour of New Zealand, as scrutiny over team culture and drinking habits accompanied yet another defeat Down Under.

- RORY DOLLARD

A matter of hours after Australia hit the winning runs in Sydney to seal a crushing 4-1 win, breaking news plunged an already beaten squad closer to the cliff edge of crisis.

It reported that Brook, the Test vice-captain in Australia and the white-ball skipper who will lead his country in next month's T20 World Cup, had become embroiled in a scuffle with a nightclub bouncer in Wellington on October 31.

That was the night before the third ODI against New Zealand, on a tour that had been billed as a central part of England's Ashes preparation for Brook, pictured right, several other players and the coaching staff.

It is the latest unwelcome episode to dog a winter that has seen England heavily criticised for a mid-Ashes break to the beach resort of Noosawhich some onlookers said was like a boozy ‘stag do’.

And concerns over the looseness of the regime's professionalism under managing director of men’s cricket Rob Key and head coach Brendon McCullum are now at fever pitch, with both men’s jobs in the line of fire.

ECB chief executive Richard Gould had already announced an immediate formal review of the Ashes debacle, pointedly targeting:

on tour with England in Australia

“tour planning and preparation, individual performance and behaviour” and promising “necessary changes over the coming months’.