Brydon Carse Pulled From Lord's Test After Handcuffed-in-Derby Video, Eighth England Player Caught Up in Off-Field Mess Since Last Year

Brydon Carse won't play at Lord's this week. Not because of form, not because of injury. Because he got handcuffed by four police officers outside a Derby nightclub on Saturday night, and now the Cricket Regulator is investigating what happened.

The England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed Monday that Carse is out for the second Test against Pakistan, which starts Thursday. "Following a referral from the ECB, the Cricket Regulator have confirmed that they will investigate events on Saturday night in Derby," the ECB said in a statement reported by RFI. "Brydon Carse will no longer be available for selection for the Second Men's Rothesay Test Match while this investigation is ongoing and the full facts are obtained."

Hampshire seamer Sonny Baker is his replacement.

According to India Today, Carse was detained for a few minutes but was not arrested or charged. Video circulating on social media, cited by BBC, RFI and India Today alike, shows Carse surrounded by officers, talking to Durham team-mate Matthew Potts, with former England Test captain Ben Stokes visible in the background.

How it started: a County Championship win

This wasn't an England trip. Carse had been released from the Test squad after getting left out of the XI for the first Test at Headingley, which England won by an innings and 103 runs, according to RFI. He went to play for Durham instead, took 2-82 and scored 26 runs as Durham beat Derbyshire by 338 runs inside three days, per the IANS wire service. He hadn't played for England in any format since the Ashes finished in January, with a hand injury keeping him out of the IPL too.

The team went out to celebrate the win. That's when the incident happened.

Vaughan wants blood, sort of

Former England captain Michael Vaughan told BBC Radio 5 Live that the ECB needs to hand down something severe. "Someone is going to have to get a punishment that sends a shiver down the whole England cricket team and right down through the programme, so that everyone knows that if you misbehave or bring any kind of bad reputation on to this team, you know what's going to come," Vaughan said. "It's the only punishment that will really hurt players."

But Vaughan also doesn't want Carse turned into a scapegoat for a problem that's clearly bigger than one bowler. "I hope Carse is getting good support around him," he said. "He is a character who can be a little bit loose and if you give him a bit of rope he'll take a huge amount of it. He needs people around him who are giving him better advice."

"I would feel for Carse if he is the one who takes the rap for what has happened over the past nine months, but somewhere, somehow, something has to be done to set a precedent that they won't stand for that behaviour any more," Vaughan added.

Carse wasn't arrested or charged. He was out celebrating a domestic win, not on England duty, not breaking any specific team rule that's been reported. If the ECB drops the hammer on him specifically, it risks punishing the guy who happened to be filmed rather than fixing whatever culture keeps producing these nights.

The pattern is the real problem

This is the eighth England-contracted player involved in or present for a late-night incident in roughly the past year, out of 30 men currently on central contracts, according to BBC's reporting. Over a quarter of the entire contracted player pool.

The list, per BBC and RFI: white-ball captain Harry Brook was punched by a bouncer outside a nightclub in Wellington, New Zealand last October, with Jacob Bethell and Josh Tongue also present. Opener Ben Duckett was filmed apparently drunk during England's Ashes tour stop in Noosa, Australia. In June, Stokes and pace bowler Gus Atkinson broke a team curfew and were present when a member of England's security staff was punched by a Saracens rugby player at a London nightclub. Both got written warnings and were stood down for the second Test against New Zealand. Stokes announced his retirement from international cricket weeks later, mid-series, and red-ball coach Brendon McCullum was axed two weeks after that.

England scrapped its curfew rule following the Australia and New Zealand tours in January, then reinstated one, then Stokes and Atkinson broke it in June anyway.

Now under new Test captain Joe Root, there's no curfew at all. "My view on curfews is I don't think they work, and if you want guys to take responsibility on the field they've got to be able to feel they can be grown adults off it and make good strong decisions off it," Root told Sky Sports.

Root's philosophy is being tested in real time. Carse wasn't even breaking a curfew, since there isn't one. He was out with team-mates after a county win, not on England duty, and wasn't charged with anything. Whether the Cricket Regulator's investigation finds any wrongdoing at all is still an open question. What isn't in dispute is the frequency: eight incidents, eight players, one year. Root's bet that adults will police themselves hasn't paid off yet, and Vaughan's call for a punishment severe enough to change that calculation is now the live question hanging over Thursday's Lord's Test.