MELBOURNE — Cricketers spend a long time away from home throughout the winter and often this coincides with Christmas. So, what do the players do to mark the occasion and how has it changed down the years?
This year, England’s chastened Ashes squad will have a team meal at their Melbourne hotel ahead of the Boxing Day Test.
The day will begin with both squads training at the MCG in the morning. With family in tow at this stage of the tour, the wives, girlfriends and children of England’s players will get a tour of the famous old ground while their other halves are in the nets.
They are ushered onto the MCG outfield during this time, with the kids and parents allowed to have informal games of cricket on the hallowed turf.
At the end of training, the England players will hand out their presents to the teammate they drew in the touring squad’s secret Santa.
Ben Stokes and co will do Secret Santa (Photo: Getty)Then it’ll be back to the team hotel, where in the early afternoon a traditional Christmas meal will be served in a private function room for the players, England staff and all their families.
This will involve all the usual trimmings plus a selection of Aussie BBQ favourites, like prawns, chicken and burgers.
Booze will be allowed – or it was when The i Paper checked before the whole Noosa “stag do” claims and apparent Ben Duckett video surfaced. Obviously with a Test match the next day, alcohol will only be consumed in moderation.
There’ll also be a Father Christmas at the meal for the kids to go and see and receive a present. The cost of all this is covered by the England & Wales Cricket Board, with the actual organisation of the meal planned and executed by team manager Wayne Bentley.
This year’s Christmas Day is very much standard for the modern era, with the Australian team also doing something very similar at their hotel in Melbourne.
Mike Atherton and Alec Stewart in 1994 (Photo: Getty) Ian Botham and Phillip DeFreitas pictured in fancy dress in 1986 (Photo: Getty)But it’s a stark difference to years gone by, when the England players would start the day with a boozy champagne breakfast, be treated to a play – and more drinks – by the visiting journalists and then have an even boozier lunch where fancy dress was the name of the game.
These festive festivities reached their peak in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Who can forget pictures of Mike Gatting dressed up as Henry VIII in 1994, Phil DeFreitas as Diana Ross in 1986 or Allan Lamb in drag as a maid in 1990?
These fancy-dress Christmas lunches – and the play by the visiting UK press pack – were last seen on the 1994-95 Ashes tour. Since then, the festive celebrations have been rather more conservative, with the view that the players wanted to be seen as more professional, although other than 2010-11 results have still been depressingly familiar.
Geoff Boycott and Ian Botham (right) share a joke in 1981 (Photo: Getty) Mike Gatting, the late Robin Smith and Michael Atherton (Photos: Getty)The only real variation to the team’s Christmas plans in recent years was the last Ashes tour four years ago, when amid Covid restrictions the festivities were scaled down.
This saw the squad booked in for lunch at a crowded restaurant in St Kilda, the seaside suburb of Melbourne. It didn’t go well, with the players harassed by local media and punters. The food offering was described by one person who was there as “rank”. Indeed, having seen a picture of the “meal” served I can confirm it looked like the most depressing Christmas lunch ever.
The players left that venue very early. It may not have been a coincidence that several members of the touring party went down with Covid in the days afterwards.
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On the tour of South Africa back in 2019-20, things got even worse, with several players going down with a mystery virus – now suspected to be Covid – during Christmas. Many players, including Chris Woakes, left the meal at the team hotel at Centurion after just one course.
In total 11 players went down with the virus ahead of that year’s Boxing Day Test, with among those declared “fit” to play – Joe Root, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes – having to leave the field of play for treatment and comfort breaks such was the severity of the bug that swept the camp.
Surely this year can’t be any worse?
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