New England captain Joe Root makes decision over team curfew – after Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson Chelsea nightclub incident led to questions over the team’s alleged drinking culture

Joe Root has ripped up England’s curfew rules just a month after they were drawn up.

Root, 35, takes charge of the first match of his second spell as Test captain next week and has confirmed the after-hours guidelines put together by director of cricket Rob Key will not be enforced.

Instead, he is telling his players to behave like ‘grown adults’ ahead of the series against Pakistan beginning in Leeds next Wednesday.

‘There’s not going to be a curfew. I don’t think this needs to be a big deal, to be honest,’ Root told the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.

‘My view on the curfew is that the players are doing their work, and if you want guys to take responsibility on the field, they’ve got to feel like they can be grown adults and make good, strong decisions off it.

‘That’s for us as a team to manage well, and police well for me and Stephen Fleming.

‘We should be known for how we play cricket and what we do on the field. We should be on the back page of papers.’

The stance taken by Root and incoming Test coach Fleming is a bold move, just weeks after the ECB hierarchy felt it necessary to spell out exactly what players could and couldn’t do – including a ban on drinking the day before, during and after international matches.

Former skipper Ben Stokes was dropped from the squad for the second Test against New Zealand earlier this summer after breaking the curfew following the first Test

Key went to the length of distributing this amongst all senior men’s cricketers following Daily Mail Sport’s story that Root’s predecessor Ben Stokes had no case to answer in the Cricket Regulator’s probe into being in a nightclub in Chelsea post-midnight following a Lord’s Test win over New Zealand because he did not believe a curfew was in place once a match had finished.

Following that, any member of full England squads were to inform management if they intended to be outside of the team hotel by 10pm.

However, Root insisted: ‘Be adults, look after yourselves, look after each other, create a good, strong culture where you know when the right time is to celebrate and enjoy a win or to have a sensible beer, but remember – you’ve got to play for England.

‘I don’t want people to feel like they can’t enjoy winning a Test match because they want to have a beer or at the right time let their hair down and then that’s absolutely fine. We’re human beings at the end of the day.

‘You know what your responsibilities are, you know how you need to prepare for a Test match and what it takes, and the effects that these things can have on you. So be smart, be sensible, and just be an adult.’

An ECB spokesman told Daily Mail Sport: ‘We have a Test captain and coach, who are looking at how they set team standards and culture.

As part of this, the curfew will no longer be in place.

‘We will ensure all players have a clear understanding of expectations when they come together for the upcoming Test series.’