LONDON, United Kingdom, August 1 – England captain Ben Stokes has insisted his team did not snub Australia after reports they refused to have post-series drinks with their Ashes rivals.
England beat Australia by 49 runs to win the fifth Test of the series at The Oval on Monday.
Stokes’s side, who came from 2-0 down to draw the series 2-2, traditionally join the opposing team in the dressing rooms to socialise at the end of a Test campaign.
But reports in the Australian media suggested the tourists were left disappointed as they waited to be invited into the England dressing room before departing around an hour later.
England Test coach Brendon McCullum had already cast doubt on the socialising when he said “I can’t imagine we’ll be having a beer with them any time soon” following Jonny Bairstow’s controversial stumping by Australia’s Alex Carey in the second Test at Lord’s.
England’s alleged snub was branded “pretty pathetic” by an unnamed source in a Fox Sports Australia report.
But England claimed their post-series wrap-up went longer than usual due to an extended presentation session that marked the retirements of Stuart Broad and Moeen Ali.
And Stokes took to social media in the middle of the night to make it clear there was no snub intended because England players eventually met up with their Australian counterparts at a nightclub.
Responding to journalist Bharat Sundaresan, who had been reporting on the missed drinks, Stokes tweeted: “To clarify…Our wrap took longer than expected because of multiple last time events. We decided to meet up in the night club rather than the dressing room.”
