If players are expected to take responsibility on field, they should be trusted off it as well, says Root
\n london
\nEngland captain Joe Root said there would be no team curfew during next week\u2019s home Test series against Pakistan, backing players to act responsibly despite recent off-field incidents that have put the team\u2019s culture under scrutiny.
\nThe 35-year-old\u2019s remarks come amid the intense scrutiny surrounding England\u2019s dressing room culture over the past year under former coach Brendon McCullum and former captain Ben Stokes.
\nRoot, England\u2019s all-time leading Test run-scorer, returned to the captaincy following Stokes\u2019 retirement in June amid the Test series against New Zealand, during which the all-rounder was suspended for a Test along with pacer Gus Atkinson for breaching a team curfew during a night out in London.
\nMcCullum, too, stepped down following England\u2019s 2-1 series loss, and was replaced by former teammate Stephen Fleming.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s not going to be a curfew. I don\u2019t think this needs to be a big deal, to be honest,\u201d Root said on the Sky Sports Cricket podcast published on Wednesday.
\n\u201cMy view is that if players are expected to take responsibility on the field, they should be trusted as grown adults to make good decisions off it as well.\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s something we, as a team, have to manage properly and police ourselves, alongside Stephen Fleming,\u201d he added. England\u2019s team culture has been under scrutiny since last year\u2019s 4-1 Ashes defeat in Australia and a string of off-field incidents. Among them was an altercation involving Harry Brook and a nightclub bouncer in New Zealand.
\nECB chief executive Richard Gould said in January that players would be subject to stricter measures, including a midnight curfew.
\nEngland are seventh in the World Test Championship standings. Root and Fleming will begin their tenure in the three-Test series against Pakistan, which starts on August 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If players are expected to take responsibility on field, they should be trusted off it as well, says Root london England captain Joe Root said there would be no team curfew during next week\u2019s home Test series against Pakistan, backing players to act responsibly despite recent off-field incidents that have put the team\u2019s culture under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561686,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-561664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n