Brydon Carse handcuffed by police outside nightclub prompting ECB investigation

Brydon Carse has become the latest England cricketer involved in a late-night incident after footage emerged of the fast bowler in police handcuffs outside a bar in Derby.

The England and Wales Cricket Board has confirmed it is investigating the incident, which occurred after Durham, the Division Two leaders, completed a three-day thrashing of Derbyshire in the County Championship on Saturday. Matthew Potts and Ben Stokes can also briefly be seen in the footage.

“We are aware of an incident which is reported to have taken place in Derby last night, and are currently investigating,” read the ECB statement. We will provide a further update when possible.”

According to reports, Carse was released without charge.

The incident comes after a spate of bad publicity off the field for England and just five days after Joe Root, the returning England captain, spoke of his desire for his players to be “really good role models, good human beings”.

England’s winter tour of Australia was rocked by various off-field incidents, including the infamous boozy week in Noosa during a mid-Ashes break and the hushed-up account of Harry Brook being punched by a nightclub bouncer in Wellington last November, the night before leading England out in one-day international against New Zealand. Then this summer, Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson were suspended for the second Test against New Zealand after breaking the team’s newly imposed midnight curfew following the first Test win – an incident that was the catalyst for Stokes’s shock retirement from international cricket.

Stokes himself has said cricket has a drinking culture. This month, he told the For the Love of Cricket Podcast: “We are in 2026 now, where the game has gone more professional over the years, and one thing that has stayed within cricket is its relationship with alcohol – from club cricket it works its way up.”

Carse was England’s leading wicket-taker during the Ashes series but injury has kept him on the sidelines this season. He was picked in the super-sized squad for the Headingley Test against Pakistan but released to play for Durham. He is in the squad for the second Test at Lord’s.

He was not on England duty at the time of the incident but is centrally contracted. He served a three-month ban in 2024 for historic betting offences between 2017 and 2019.