England's managing director of men's cricket Rob Key says he will investigate the drinking habits of the England team following reports that their mid-Ashes beach resort break may have involved over-indulging of alcohol.
England lost each of the first three tests to allow Australia to retain the Ashes in just 11 days of on-field action.
The England squad visited the resort town of Noosa on the Sunshine Coach north of Brisbane between the second and third tests, a long-planned part of the itinerary designed to help players relax and unwind on the long tour.
Key, who did not join the players in Noosa, said he had no problem with the break, but would not be happy if he found evidence of over-indulging.
“If there's things where people are saying that our players went out and drank excessively, then of course we'll be looking into that,” he said Tuesday in Melbourne, where the fourth test begins Friday.
“Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol for an international cricket team is not something that I'd expect to see at any stage and it would be a fault not to look into what happened there. From everything that I've heard so far, they actually were pretty well behaved. Very well behaved.”
He added: “We've got enough ways of finding out exactly what happened and everything that I've heard so far that they sat down, had lunch, had dinner, didn't go out late, all of that, had the odd drink. I don't mind that. If it goes past that, then that's an issue as far as I'm concerned."
Key also said he had previously looked into reports that players had been spotted drinking the night before a match in New Zealand shortly before the Ashes.
A short clip of white-ball captain Harry Brook and Jacob Bethell was shared by a member of the public on social media, said to have been taken while they were out in Wellington before the third one-day international on November 1.
“I didn't feel like that was worthy of formal warnings, but it was probably worthy of informal ones,” he said.
“I think that was a bit of a wake-up call actually for what they're going into. I don't mind players having a glass of wine over dinner. Anything more than that, I think is ridiculous, really.”
Prior to the Ashes series, Key had urged England's squad to not "get caught doing stupid things".
The fourth test of the series begins on Friday in Melbourne.
Australia coach Andrew McDonald said he expected his team to be firing on all cylinders after celebrating their victory on Sunday.
"There's no instructions from me, around that, they're all adults," McDonald told reporters on Tuesday.
"They know how they need to get ready for a test match, and they'll be ready to go come Boxing Day morning. I don't think there'll be any hangover. Maybe yesterday there was a hangover, and maybe today, I'm not sure."