England fast bowler Brydon Carse has been charged with improper conduct by the Cricket Regulator following his arrest on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly during a night out with his Durham teammates in Derby in August. He will face a disciplinary hearing before the independent Cricket Discipline Committee in the coming weeks, but remains available for selection by England.
What the charge is
A statement from the Cricket Regulator said that following an investigation, Carse has been charged with breaching regulation 3.2 of the ECB professional conduct regulations in relation to events in Derby in the early hours of 23 August 2026. The regulator added that as the process is ongoing it would make no further comment.
Regulation 3.2 prohibits any participant from conducting themselves in a manner, doing any act or making any omission at any time which is improper, or which may be prejudicial to the interests of cricket, or bring the ECB, the game or any cricketer into disrepute. It is a wide provision, and it is the standard charge used in cases involving off-field conduct by professional players.
One night, three players, different outcomes
Carse was arrested and subsequently de-arrested in Derby in the early hours of 23 August, at a city-centre pub, before being stood down for the following Test. Teammate Josh Tongue was also investigated but escaped sanction, having not been named in the side. A third teammate, Brook, had already been fined £30,000 by the ECB after an altercation with a nightclub bouncer on the same evening, but was not charged.
Carse has 12 months left to run on his England and Wales Cricket Board central contract, and is not facing action from his employers for breaching the terms of that contract. The ECB said it was aware of the regulator’s decision, that Carse now has the opportunity to respond through the established process, and that it would not comment further so as not to prejudge the outcome.
Why it matters
That a charge has been brought at all is the significant development. Tongue and Brook avoided the regulator’s process, and the differing outcomes show how much turns on the specific facts rather than on the shared company. For Carse, a conviction at a disciplinary hearing would carry a range of possible sanctions, up to and including suspension, at a point in his career when he is established in the England attack.
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The wider context is institutional. The August incident was followed by ill-feeling inside the dressing room, which is widely believed to have contributed to Ben Stokes announcing his retirement from international cricket in June.
What happens next
Carse has the right to respond through the regulator’s process, and a hearing is expected in front of the Cricket Discipline Committee within weeks. The committee will determine whether regulation 3.2 was breached and what sanction, if any, follows. Selection decisions will be made separately by the England management team, and his availability through the autumn international schedule will not be settled until the outcome of the hearing is known.
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