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The hardest moment for Brydon Carse while under investigation for historic betting offences was confessing his actions to his Durham team-mates.
But there is someone who gave him some valuable advice that he is now trying to follow in an interview with Telegraph Sporthis first since he was suspended for three months.
“Ben Stokes was one of the first people I told about it. He told me to learn from it, be honest and truthful. You have to follow the process and things will get better over time,” Carse says.
Stokes is a classic. Own up to your mistakes, but don’t let them define you. “He gave me his perspective and he’s been really good every time I’ve seen him after that, making sure we just have normal conversations and he doesn’t push the issue too much. Having him around has been a real benefit.”
Carse speaks at the Riverside in the first week of September and already it feels like winter, rain sweeps the ground and Lumley Castle is barely visible in the mist.
His ban ended only a week before we meet on August 28, but he already feels renewed, hoping to enjoy the rest of the season with England. Two days before his ban ended, he was named in the white-ball squads for the Twenty20 and ODI series against Australia that begins in Southampton on Wednesday and in the Test squad for the tour of Pakistan. He marked his first game back for Durham last week with a hundred and three wickets. From the bottom of his heart, one wonders if he has blown his career to the brink of the Test ceiling, a remarkable turnaround. He has plenty to say.
Fueled by the fire of redemption
The cloud that had been hanging over him since he learned he was facing a disciplinary charge has lifted. “It’s definitely given me, I don’t want to say, a new lease on life, but there’s a lot more fire in me and points I want to prove to myself and others. I’m really looking forward to getting started.”
“I fully accept my actions and the punishment I have been given, but it is something I want to put behind me and continue to look forward to performing well on the cricket field and playing as much as possible in an England jersey,” he said.
Carse was travelling from Durham to Edgbaston for his first county game of the season in early April when he received a phone call that changed his life. It was the call from the cricket regulator. They had discovered bets he had placed on cricket matches – more than 300 – between 2017 and 2019. These were mainly in-play bets, of small amounts, while Carse watched the games on television at home.
These were not matches he had played in and he was not accused of fixing in any way, but it was a clear breach of the rules and there was no excuse given the extensive anti-corruption awareness programmes that players undergo.
The bets were placed over seven or eight days during the three-year period and involved between 30 and 50 bets each time. Carse says he was never addicted to gambling. He was young, injured and bored with time on his hands when most of the bets were placed. He had only recently arrived in the UK from South Africa when it all started and admits he was still immature and did things wrong.
It is likely that his name was flagged by England and Wales Cricket Board investigators for further checks while he was in the Hundred. The governing bodies work closely with the betting regulators, they can easily cross-reference databases. They had been investigating his case for at least a year before the appeal was made as he was on his way to Edgbaston. He put his hands up very quickly.
The Phone Call That Changed His Life
“When I got that phone call on the way to Birmingham I was extremely shocked and surprised. I mentioned to the dispatcher that I wasn’t sure what he was talking about because the details were quite fuzzy now. I said, ‘Can you tell me when these incidents happened?’ And he obviously said between 2017 and 2019, and I understood.
“I knew then what I had done. I probably didn’t realise the seriousness of what I had done at the time. But I called my agent and I spoke to Durham and then England. And I think from day one, once I had the initial interview with the regulator, I accepted that what I had done was wrong.
“The majority of the bets were made between 2017 and 2018, when I think I had played one or two professional cricket games and had two long-term injuries. I was injured and incredibly upset, probably not in a great psychological state of mind at the time. I worked with a lot of people over a number of years and have a close support structure now, and I was a different person then. Ultimately, they were stupid, idiotic mistakes that I made.
“When you go through tough times or you get injured as a sportsman, you make stupid decisions and stupid mistakes. Looking back on that time, because I wasn’t playing cricket, I probably excluded myself from a lot of things. I didn’t talk about some of the challenges I was facing at the time. And that’s probably the biggest thing I’ve learned over the years, that there are people you can trust and talk to. I’m very fortunate that throughout that whole process there were people in England, in the PCA (Professional Cricketers’ Association) and Durham, who really supported me and helped me.”
Terrible timing
The inquiry was a shocker for Carse. Rob Key, the England director of cricket, had begun the summer by challenging bowlers like him. If they put in the work, they had a good chance of becoming part of the evolution of the England Test team. With a two-year central contract and plenty of experience, now aged 29, Carse was right to think that this could be his summer, his chance to break into the Test team and add to his 14 ODI caps.
With that phone call, his summer Test dreams ended. Unsurprisingly, his form plummeted. He took no runs for 128 in 19 overs in that match against Warwickshire, and no runs for 92 in his next match, his mind occupied by other things. When he was suspended for three months, it opened the door for others. Gus Atkinson, a fast right-hander of similar size who can bat at eight, burst in in his place and Josh Hull, 20, made his Test debut at the Oval.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat it. The first four to six weeks while the investigation was ongoing were incredibly difficult mentally. It definitely had an impact on my performance on the cricket field,” he said. “Anyone who knows me knows what kind of character I am in a group, and especially at Durham. And I just wasn’t myself.”
Marcus North, Durham’s director of cricket, put a very Australian spin on this approach. He asked Carse to rise to the occasion. “After a few conversations with Marcus North, I thought it was the right thing to do to address the team and the coaching staff as a whole, because there was still a point where I was the only one who knew this was happening. I remember sitting with them in the dressing room one training day and telling them. The response I got from the players really gave me a sense of comfort and support.”
Telling the truth in the locker room is the best decision
“We’ve always said that we’re always going to support each other on this team. It’s a very tight-knit team. You know, everybody only lives 15-20 minutes from each other. At first, the idea of going out to the team was intimidating, but once I did it, it was probably the best thing I could have done because I trust a lot of these guys in that locker room. I have some really close friends there that I respect a lot. And ultimately, I wanted them to respect me as well.”
Carse was banned for a total of 16 months, with 13 months suspended. He isolated himself for the first month of his ban before starting work with Durham bowling coach Graham Onions on his red-ball skills, believing he would be playing Championship cricket in the final weeks of the season. “If I’m completely honest, I probably didn’t have what it took to play. [England] on my radar.
With so much cricket this winter (five tours across all formats), Carse has plenty of opportunities to put that behind him if he plays well against Australia. He is still part of the ‘battery’ of fast bowlers that England would like to have ready for the Ashes. He has a lot to gain if he can move on.
“Next month will be an important month for me personally. I have something to prove to myself and I hope I can put in some good performances. Playing now is almost like starting from scratch, I have no burden on me.”
