Key refuses to back Stokes as captain, Root to lead at The Oval & England considering alcohol ban

Um, the key lines this morning from Rob Key, um, he did not guarantee that Stokes will remain as captain, saying we've got to let the process play out.

Uh, England are considering a, a complete booze ban.

We'll see how that one goes.

Uh, Gus Atkinson said he didn't know the curfew was in place, and I think actually, I'm kind of, having been in the room, rightly or wrongly, sympathies, I did extend my sympathies to Rob Key a little bit.

It was an impossible situation.

One of the questions he was asked was, "Is this team a national embarrassment?" And then another question a couple minutes later was, "Have you guys made too big a deal of this?" That's the kind of line he's treading.

[laughs]

And unfortunately, to the first question, rather than just saying, "No," he said, "No, we're not a national embarrassment."

He's right.

So there's-

Colon on that one

...

there is a-

Come on, Rob Key

... colon.

We are not a national embarrassment.

Anyway, I think this, this is the kind of-

Oh

... overall sentiment from it.

Uh, this quote he said, "As much as I'm angry and frustrated at sitting here and having to talk through this, if these protocols weren't in place, it could've been a lot worse." That's not the quote I was gonna pick out, but that's the quote I've said.

Butch, your overall-

[laughs]

... kind of thoughts on, on the morn- the morning's news.

Um, okay, so I know Rob Key very well.

We played against and with, um, each other over the years, and then worked together for a long period of time, um, at Sky before he got this job.