England Star Was Sent Home From Australia After James Anderson Incident

An England player was once sent home from Australia after an incident involving legendary bowler James Anderson.

England trail Australia 1-0 in the 2025/26 Ashes series after losing the first Test in Perth - but unlike some previous tours, all focus has been on cricketing matters.

Australia successfully chased down a target of 205 to win by eight wickets in Perth, with Travis Head smashing 123 after being promoted to open the batting in Usman Khawaja's injury-related absence.

England blew the chance to set up a more challenging chase, having lost their final nine wickets for just 99 runs in their second innings.

There are still plenty of positives to take from the match, with Ben Stokes' side bowling Australia out for just 132 the first time around and putting them under significant pressure before their batting collapse.

That is in contrast to the opening Test of the 2013/14 series, when England batters were terrorised by Mitchell Johnson and Jonathan Trott flew home due to a stress-related illness.

Before the start of the 2017/18 series, Jonny Bairstow was accused of headbutting Australia opener Cameron Bancroft in a Perth bar in an incident that quickly made headline news - even though it was quickly clarified that it was simply Bairstow's more unusual way of greeting someone rather than anything aggressive.

That account was backed up by Bancroft, but England still imposed a midnight curfew on their players.

Days later, England Lions batter Ben Duckett was suspended after pouring a drink over James Anderson's head in another Perth bar.

It was reported that Duckett was at the bar alongside members of the Lions and senior squads, who were not under curfew that night.

The then-England coach, Trevor Bayliss, described the incident as 'fairly trivial' but added: "In the current climate, it's just not acceptable. Everyone's been warned about how even small things can be blown out of proportion. It's quite simply unacceptable."

Duckett, who was then 23 years of age and playing domestic cricket for Northamptonshire, had initially been called up to the Test squad to open alongside Alastair Cook.

But in an era where patience among England selectors appeared to be much less than it is today, Duckett was dropped after just four Test matches and one half-century.

It wasn't until 2019 when he made a return to the national setup, having signed for Nottinghamshire at the start of the year.

He was then drafted into the Test squad as an opener in 2022 under Stokes and Brendon McCullum, and has become one of England's most consistent and top-performing batters.

It wasn't until 2024, when he was firmly established in the top order, that Duckett finally revealed what really happened in the Perth bar with Anderson - and how it wasn't actually his fault.

He told The Final Word podcast: "Jimmy actually threw a drink on me, but no-one knows about that. And then said, 'Oh, we're just messing around. You can just lob one on my head. That's fine'. Genuinely.

"So then I just poured one on his head and the security guard saw me from the ECB, who looks after us, and it filtered back. We carried on the rest of the night together, getting on well. That's the story that's got blown up.

"But then you can't really come out and say what I've just said [at the time], because I'm a young lad trying to break into the England team. It's one of the best ever England players, you know? And people didn't really want to hear me.

"It was actually a really, really tough time. People look back and it's probably funny, and stuff like that. But when you're in Australia and you're kind of being told you can't go to training, you can't play - it's a lonely place for a 22-year-old. And being in Australia, you're not getting much sympathy from anyone out there, are you?

"The lads around me in that group at the time were amazing."