Ashes 2023: England players met Australia ‘in the nightclub’ after fifth Test drinks snubbing

England captain Ben Stokes claimed a lengthy presentation was to blame for failing to have a post-series beer with Australia.

Ben Stokes and Pat Cummins after The Oval Test. Picture: Getty Images

England and Australian players eventually caught up for a drink, but not before the host’s had inadvertently snubbed the opposition.

The Ashes has ended on a sour note with England ignoring Australia’s requests to share an end of tour drink with the Australians while they celebrated their own achievements.

Coach Brendon McCullum had said he could not “imagine having a beer with them any time soon” in the emotional fall out from the Lord’s Test.

And so it was.

England won the last Test to draw the series and retreated to their rooms after play. When the Australians knocked on the door of the dressing room to see if they could come in they were told to come back later.

Brendon McCullum suggested England wouldn’t have a post-series drink with Australia following the Bairstow stumping saga.

Further entreaties were ejected until it became time for the bus to leave without England inviting the opposition in.

The team waited at The Oval until 10.30pm but staff and players had to leave on the bus.

England claimed surprise that the opposition had tired of waiting and Stokes tried to explain the situation on social media.

“Our wrap took longer than expected because of a multiple last time events,” he wrote. “We decided to meet up in the nightclub rather than the dressing room.”

Australia’s players after the Ashes series finale. Picture: Getty Images

The Australians had been unaware of this arrangement.

The teams have a good relationship and a number of the senior Australian players wanted to wait and have what might have been a last drink with opponents they have played against for a decade or more.

England, apparently, got caught up in celebrating Stuart Broad and Moeen Ali’s last Test and could not find time to let the opposition in.

It is an unfortunate end to a brilliant series.

The incident mirrors the snub from the India in 2017 when the Indian side pointedly refused to drink with the Australians at the end of that tour.

Australian and England players gather in the dressing room after the 2019 Ashes. Picture: Supplied

The 2023 Ashes had, however, been played in good spirits by both side apart from the moral judgments passed on the Australians stumping of Jonny Bairstow by McCullum and captain Ben Stokes after the Lord’s Test.

In 2019 the sides enjoyed a drink despite numerous controversies throughout the series.

Teams, traditionally, engaged socially at the end of play, that devolved into at the end of the Test and then to the end of series.

Pat Cummins with a replica Ashes urn at The Ova, Picture: Getty Images

Veteran players talk fondly about enjoying a drink with Australian players who had abused them throughout the day but turned out to be decent people in the change room.

This Australian side is one of the least verbally aggressive sides of the past four decades and the players enjoy a good relationship forged with the opposition over many series and various franchise conditions.

England claim to have reinvented and reinvigorated cricket, and even claimed a win for entertaining when they lost a Test.