Speaking on The Shackles Are Off podcast, former England all-rounder Tim Bresnan discussed the time a trio of England players turned up to the team’s Perth hotel in an ambulance after a night out.
Bresnan was asked to recall his best off-pitch memory from the 2010/11 Ashes tour, which the tourists memorably won 3-1, and though he didn’t witness the moment itself, he said that England’s security adviser Reg Dickason telling him about it stood top of the pile.
“Just hearing the story of [Matt] Prior, [Kevin] Pietersen and Broady [Stuart Broad] bowling out the back of the ambulance from Reg [Dickason], our security man,” Bresnan said. “At Perth, we get there, and acclimatisation, tradition anyway is just to go out on a massive bender to get used to the timezone.
“We’re out in Subiaco, we hit this nightclub, everyone’s there, Straussy [Andrew Strauss] dad-dancing, the lot. Anyway, I get back about four I think, but then you sleep until 10, and then you’re up and that’s it, you’re good for the day. You try and fight it and stay awake until nine the following night and that’s it, that’s the end of your acclimatisation.
“So I get in about four, a few lads come in in dribs and drabs later. But the next day, Reg gets round the squad and he comes to me and he says ‘Bres, do you know anything about lads in an ambulance?’ And I’m like, ‘No mate, I haven’t heard it, what’s happened?’ He says, ‘I got called to security manager’s office at the hotel’, and he said, ‘I’ve got something you might want to look at, a few of your lads’. And he’s like, ‘Ah Jesus what now?’
“So about 5.25 in the morning, this ambulance pulls up. He’s checking his notes, this security manager, he’s like ‘as you can see, no one called an ambulance’. Anyway, about 15 seconds later, three of our lads have bowled straight out the back of the ambulance like ‘Cheers lads, thank you’, getting rid of oxygen masks, throwing them back in.
[breakout id=”0″][/breakout] “Apparently they’d been trying to get a taxi back from Subiaco, and it was an expat paramedic who’d seen them at the side of the road going, ‘Alright lads, what’s cracking?’ And they’re ‘We cant get home big ‘un, can you give us a lift?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah no worries, jump in.’”
The third Test at Perth was England’s only loss of the series, with Australia triumphant by 267 runs. The first game was a draw, and the remaining three were innings victories for the tourists.
