England opener Zak Crawley has lifted the lid on his side’s post-Ashes celebrations.
The English levelled the series 2-2 in the fifth and final Test at The Oval and typically after an Ashes series, both sides get together to share some customary drinks in the home side’s changerooms.
While the Australian side reportedly made efforts to catch up with the English post-match, reports emerged that they failed to get a response from their opponents as England stayed behind closed doors.
England have since claimed there was a misunderstanding, with captain Ben Stokes suggesting instead the teams met up at a nightclub in London.
Crawley said missing out on the tradition as a shame as the timing just didn’t line up for both sides to meet up at the venue.
“It was a shame that, the timing just didn’t work,” Crawley told The Vaughany and Tuffers Cricket Club Podcast.
“Obviously both teams do a debrief and ours is usually a bit shorter than it was on Monday night.
“We had ‘Broady’ (Stuart Broad) leaving, ‘Mo’ (Moeen Ali) leaving and one of the physios was leaving as well.
“So, we had our normal debrief and a send-off for those guys. We were just in there a bit too long and it didn’t quite work for the Aussies.
“That was a shame. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, the timings just didn’t quite work.”
After England players, including Crawley, were captured at a McDonald’s in London in the early hours of Tuesday morning, former English captain Michael Vaughan asked the opener if any of his teammates partied as hard as Andrew Flintoff did following the 2005 Ashes victory.
“There wasn’t a ‘Freddie Flintoff’ actually (laughs),” Crawley replied.
“I haven’t seen the pictures of Freddie, but it’d take a lot to get ahead of Freddie Flintoff.
“We had a great time, we enjoyed spending time together after a hard-fought series.
“But I think it was a bit more muted than your won given you won the Ashes (in 2005), and the Aussies retained it (this time).
“So no, there wasn’t a Freddie,”
While Crawley is peddling the party line that there was simply a misunderstanding, many Australian fans aren’t so sure whether that truly was the case given coach Brendon McCullum said, ‘I can’t imagine we’ll be having a beer with them any time soon’, following the controversial Lord’s Test.
Perhaps one day we’ll get to hear the Australian side of this intriguing Ashes story.