‘The boys got a bit fed up’: Travis Head opens up on big Ashes drinks mix-up

Travis Head said that Australian players were "a little bit fed up" when they couldn't join their English rivals at the Oval for a drink after the Ashes game.

At the time, Australian News Publisher foxsports.com.au said that Australia stayed at the ground all night in the hopes that England would join them for their usual drinking session.

A person close to the Australian cricket team told foxsports.com.au that they were very sad that they never got the chance to keep up that long-standing practise.

England was sure that they had not ignored Australia's request to meet up on purpose. Instead, they said that Stuart Broad and Moeen Ali's retirement speeches made things take a long time in their changing room.

Long enough that they didn't leave until between 10:45 and 11 p.m. local time, which was more than four hours after the last ball of the series.

Later, England's captain Ben Stokes said on Twitter that the two teams had agreed to meet at a party instead.

"To be clear… Multiple last-minute events made it take longer than we thought to finish," Stokes wrote on Twitter.

"We decided to meet at the club instead of in the locker room."

Head said on the Willow Talk show that England did not avoid the drinks after the Ashes on purpose, but that their talks went on much longer than they were told they would.

He also said that the fact that the two groups met at a London bar wasn't planned.

"In terms of it," Head said, "it's been played up a bit."

"After the game, I think we hung out for a while. There were a few retirements and, I think, a few people leaving the company. We kind of knocked a few times and were told to wait two minutes. Two minutes turned into an hour, and the boys were getting a little tired of waiting.

"But, yeah, a few of the boys met up with them later, and I've talked to a couple of the close guys I knew about the different times. A little bit of a letdown, but I don't think that was the plan.

"We didn't go to the night club together. Again, it was all planned that both teams ended up in the same place. I think it was a Monday night, but there aren't many places to go in London on Monday nights, so we ended up at the same place, had one or two Vodka Red Bulls together, and then went to the airport.

Head later said that some of the England players he was close with played up the drama, and that the Australian also "chirped" back.

"There were a few boys I knew, like Ben Duckett, who told me that we were following them, and I told them that they were following us, so it was all in good fun," Head said.

"Like I said, I think we kind of laughed it off, but then the media made a big deal out of it. It wasn't supposed to happen, but things like that do."

Head's version of what happened was the same as what England starter Zak Crawley said earlier this month. Crawley said that retirement comments slowed down the process.

"It was a shame that the timing just didn't work," Crawley said on The Vaughany and Tuffers Cricket Club show.

"Of course, both teams do a debriefing, but ours is usually a bit shorter than it was on Monday night.

"'Broady' (Stuart Broad) was going, and so was 'Mo' (Moeen Ali) and one of the physios.

"So, we did what we always do and said goodbye to those guys. We were just there a little too long, and the Aussies didn't like it.

"That's too bad. No one was to blame, but the time just wasn't right."