Ben Duckett was “made a bit of a scapegoat” by England management, believes Alex Wakely

EXCLUSIVE: Northants skipper says Duckett set for a big summer with the bat in response to Australia tour axing, reports James Coyne

Ben Duckett was “made a bit of a scapegoat” by the England management for the incident that saw him suspended and cut from England Lions duty in Australia, believes his county captain Alex Wakely.

Duckett, 23, was axed from an England XI tour match and three matches for the Lions against Perth Scorchers, after pouring a drink over Jimmy Anderson’s head in a Perth bar. It followed the relaxation of a team curfew by England team director Andrew Strauss and coach Trevor Bayliss ahead of the third Test at the Waca. Duckett was also fined half his tour fee (the maximum fine), then left out of the recent Lions tour to the Caribbean.

“My personal take, and I don’t mind saying, is I thought he was made a bit of a scapegoat,” Wakely, the Northamptonshire captain, told The Cricketer. “I know the ins and outs of the story a little bit more, personally from Ben.

“But the incident’s happened now, and whether you agree or disagree with it, it’s gone and it’s all about getting Ben scoring runs.

^{"We’ve got an exciting talent there who is a free spirit when he bats"}

“He’s come back brilliantly. He’s worked hard. He’s not dwelt on it. I think our environment is good for him… He’s very laid-back, whereas the ECB environment is very intense. He can get a lot off his chest, he can talk to us about it. The club has offered him all the help he needs, if he wants to talk to anyone.

“Ultimately, he’s not done much wrong. All he has to do is get himself fit. He’s had his little hand injury, and if he gets himself fit I’ve got no doubt he’ll come back and score lots of runs, because he’s one of the most talented players in the country.”

Wakely’s view is not a million miles away from Anderson’s, as it happens. Anderson said shortly afterwards that the incident was “not malicious and a bit of a non-event”, and expressed his annoyance that parts of the Australian media might use it to stir up the idea of discord around the England camp. The Times reported that other England players were acting in exactly the same fashion during the night in question.

Even before the Anderson incident, Duckett had work to do to break back into the England reckoning. He was called up for the tours of Bangladesh and India last winter, and found it tough on turning pitches. He was cut from the side after the second Test against India at Visakhapatnam, after twice getting out cheaply to the accomplished off-spinner Ravi Ashwin.

The great shame is that, had he gone to the Caribbean and done well – though not many Lions batsmen did, as the West Indies A spinners tied them in knots – he might have answered some of the critics of his batting.

Duckett is set to miss the first few weeks of the county season after undergoing surgery on a finger on his left hand, an injury which dated back to the end of the 2017 summer. He is out of contract with Northants at the end of the season, which will surely spark interest from richer counties.

Wakely says Duckett’s technical problems have been overblown, certainly when it comes to English conditions: “[As batsmen] we’ve all got technical things we’ve got to work on. They're say he has a suspect defence to spin. For me, I’ve always seen him have a very good defence. Unfortunately he just happened to face some of the best bowlers in the world on some of the most difficult tracks in the world. It was a real baptism of fire for him.

“The way Ben plays he can be quite loose sometimes, but he just wants to score. But you’ve got to weigh it up – there are times where he nicks off playing a loose shot; the next day he’s scoring 150 and blazing it through the covers. It’s a fine line. And I’m a big one for believing that you don’t want to make all cricketers the same. We’ve got an exciting talent there who is a free spirit when he bats. I’m just happy to let him go and do that.”

^{Duckett averaged 15.71 with the bat in four Tests for England}

Duckett’s coach at Northants, David Ripley, also felt Duckett was “hard done by in terms of how the winter panned out” and refuted suggestions that he is not professional enough.

Ripley told the Northampton Chronicle & Echo: “From the moment Ben Stokes got in trouble, right through the winter Ben [Duckett] was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“He’s still developing, learning and growing as a person but he came back from that trip in a good spot – he wasn’t sulking. He was desperate to get back, score runs and show that he’s a good player.

“He generally gets himself in a scrape a year, an annual scrape, but he’s a nice lad. He’s not a difficult personality at all. He’s a lovely lad.

“He’s becoming more and more professional as his rise has continued. He’s not just a young fella. He’s developed into one of our senior players so it’s important he carries that mantle well and hopefully through volume of runs he can push himself back into the national team.”