- - Harry Brook feels lucky to still be England cricket captain after nightclub incident

January 21, 2026 at 5:17 AM

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1 / 3Australia England CricketEngland's Harry Brook reacts after he was dismissed during play on day two of the fifth and final Ashes cricket test between England and Australia in Sydney, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Harry Brook counts himself lucky to still be England's white-ball cricket captain after making the “terrible mistake” of clashing with a nightclub bouncer during the tour of New Zealand that preceded his team's thrashing in the Ashes series.

Brook was reportedly hit by a bouncer after being denied entry to a club in Wellington on Oct. 31, the day before the third and last one-day international against New Zealand.

He was fined about 30,000 pounds ($40,300) at the time by the England and Wales Cricket Board and given a final warning for his future conduct. He was not stripped of the white-ball captaincy, though, and was retained as test vice-captain for the Ashes won by Australia 4-1.

“I made a terrible mistake, not only as a player, but as a captain,” Brook said Wednesday on the eve of the first match in England's six-game white-ball tour of Sri Lanka. “It’s very unprofessional and I should be leading from the front and showing the players how it should be as a professional cricketer and a captain and I put myself in a bad situation.

“I want to say sorry to my teammates, to all the fans that travel far and wide and spend a lot of money to watch us play cricket. We went out for a couple of drinks beforehand and then I took it upon myself to go out for a few more and I was on my own there.”

Brook said he would have understood if he'd lost the captaincy after informing the ECB about what had happened on the night out.

"(Resigning) never came into my mind," he said. "I left that decision to the hierarchy and look, if they’d have sacked me from being captain, then I’d have been perfectly fine with it as long as I was still playing cricket for England.

On being lucky to still have the captaincy, Brook added: “Probably slightly. Even if I had been sacked, I’d have held my hands up and said, ‘Look, I’ve made the mistake.’”

England is in Sri Lanka to play three ODIs — starting Thursday — and three T20s in preparation for the T20 World Cup that begins on Feb. 7. The tournament takes place in India and Sri Lanka.

“I think I’ve got a little bit of work to do to try and regain the trust of the players. I said sorry to them yesterday,” Brook said.

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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

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Source: “AOL Sports”