A former England star previously opened up about how one of his teammates broke his rib in a pre-Ashes sparring session during a training camp.
In line with what feels like an unfortunate tradition, England’s preparation – or lack of it – tends to be a talking point regardless of the result of an Ashes series.
Ahead of the 2025/26 4-1 Ashes series defeat against Australia, Brendon McCullum’s side were accused of having inadequate preparation as they played a white-ball series in New Zealand rather than red-ball matches like many former players advised.
And by the third Test, England’s dream of winning the Ashes was a distant memory after defeats in Perth, Brisbane, and Adelaide saw the home side retain the Urn before the away team secured a victory during Melbourne’s fourth Test.
Advert
However, the hosts made it 4-1 in Sydney despite Jacob Bethell’s brilliant 142 not out, giving the ‘Barmy Army’ something to shout about during the fifth and final Test.
England’s off-field behaviour was also called into question with reports of a mid-series trip to the Queensland town of Noosa supposedly resembling a “glorified stag-do”.
This led to an England Cricket investigation, but no further action was taken.
Then, following the fifth Test, a report from The Telegraph revealed that white-ball captain Harry Brook was close to being sacked as skipper following an investigation by the team’s management after he was “struck by a bouncer” who would not allow him entry into a nightclub in New Zealand.
The Yorkshire batsman was fined £30,000 but will still lead the side in the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka before the T20 World Cup next month.
But even successful touring sides often run into chaos before, during and after tours of Australia, which was apparent when then-England seamer James Anderson broke his rib in a pre-Ashes sparring session.
In his 2024 book, Anderson opened up about the incident which occurred ahead of the 2010/11 Ashes tour, which England won 3-1.
The Lancashire bowler was part of a squad that embarked on training exercises in Bavaria, Germany, ahead of the series.
“On the last night, the squad is made to circle each other forming a man-made ring, and one by one, opponents are picked out to have a boxing match inside,” Anderson said in his book ‘Finding the Edge’.
“It begins to unerringly resemble Fight Club. Tim Bresnan is allowed fair game to punch his captain, Andrew Strauss.”
Anderson then claimed that Alistair Cook and Graeme Swann had a fight and didn’t do any damage at all to each other despite their best efforts.
The 43-year-old added: “I’m finally picked out against Chris Tremlett. Tremlett is almost twice my size, and as I face him, both fists held in front of eye line, the rest of the England squad turn into a pack of hyenas laughing and taunting and begging for blood.”
After explaining how he ducked and weaved in an attempt to resemble a professional boxer doing ‘rope-a-dope’, Anderson explained how one “body blow” got through his guard and broke his rib, only for him to find out the extent of the damage after the series.
There were fears that he would miss the first Test, but Anderson went on to play in the series and took 24 wickets in the historic 3-1 victory.
The series victory remains England’s last in Australia.
Luke Davies