England players support the decision of their management to axe Alex Hales from the World Cup squad over his failed drugs test that has seen patience with the player run out.
ECB sources say that Hales’s axing had as much to do with his attitude towards the situation as the failed test itself. Hales had been skating on thin ice since his involvement in the Bristol brawl in September 2017 that landed Ben Stokes in court, where he was cleared of affray.
England’s management had been increasingly exasperated by Hales since, while his support in the dressing room had withered. Hales’s management company, 366 Group, yesterday issued a statement strongly condemning the ECB’s handling of the case, saying Hales was given assurances that his World Cup place would be safe and that the ruling “has left Alex devastated”.
The batsman had two meetings with ECB chief executive Tom Harrison, one with cricket managing director Ashley Giles and a lengthy phone call with one-day captain Eoin Morgan, where Hales apologised for his actions.
The decision was made by the captain, head coach Trevor Bayliss, Giles and the selectors on Sunday. Today, when contacted by Standard Sport, Hales’s representatives said that, with his 21-day recreational drugs ban over by then, Hales would be available to play for Nottinghamshire against Durham at Grantham in the Royal London One-Day Cup — a game that starts at exactly the same time as England’s first engagement of a monumental summer, against Ireland at Malahide.
Senior figures at Nottinghamshire would not confirm whether he would be involved in that match, but it is understood his ban would not have lifted in time for tomorrow’s game at Worcester. Hales is out of contract at the end of this season.
England called up Ben Duckett and Dawid Malan for the trips to Dublin and Cardiff this week, while James Vince will stay with the squad for the five-match series against Pakistan that follows.
Vince is the favourite to fill Hales’s spot in the final World Cup squad, which must be announced by May 23. With Jason Roy’s back injury a concern, Hales’s replacement will have a role to play in the tournament.
Senior ECB officials have been left frustrated by a sense that they have been hamstrung by their own regulations, which appear highly likely to be reviewed. They are yet to state publicly that that is why he has been dropped.
However, the decision for Giles and Harrison to keep his second failed test private was not one they were bound to make, and may take some explainin
