England Test cricketer Ben Duckett has been fined £700 for speeding just hours before he was scheduled to play a match.
This conviction follows closely on the heels of Duckett’s decision to withdraw from a lucrative £200,000 contract with the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League. He chose instead to focus on red-ball cricket with Nottinghamshire, aiming to secure his role as a Test opener for England ahead of the upcoming series against New Zealand.
Additionally, Duckett recently found himself in the spotlight for less favorable reasons after a video emerged showing him inebriated and slurring his words during a night out in Noosa, Australia, amidst the Ashes tour this winter. He subsequently issued a public apology for the incident.
The 31-year-old left-hander’s position as a Test opener for England has also come under scrutiny due to a decline in his performance over the past year.
In this latest incident, Duckett admitted to speeding on the A50 near Stoke in Staffordshire. As a consequence, he received a fine and four points on his driving license.
The speeding transgression occurred shortly after 1:30 p.m. on August 24, when police recorded Duckett driving at 93 mph in a 70 mph zone.
It came just hours before Duckett played a starring role in a Birmingham Phoenix Hundred victory over the Manchester Originals at Old Trafford.
Duckett admitted the speeding offence in September after being written to by Staffordshire Police.
Pictured: Ben Duckett behind the wheel of his car when he was caught speeding by Staffordshire Police in Stoke last year. England Test cricketer was driving 93mph in a 70mph zone
The conviction comes days after Duckett pulled out of a £200,000 deal to play for the Delhi Capitals in the IPL in order to play red-ball cricket for Nottinghamshire
He then pleaded guilty through the Single Justice Procedure when the force decided to bring a criminal prosecution rather than impose an out-of-court fine, due to the high speed he had been driving.
It is not Duckett’s first encounter with the criminal courts.
As a rising star in 2015, he was prosecuted for drink-driving after crashing his car into a ditch in Northamptonshire, leading to a 12-month road ban.
Speaking to the Daily Mail last week, Duckett addressed the recent viral video of him in Australia.
‘It’s not something any professional sportsman should be doing,’ he said. ‘I think it’s a fine line in terms of the timing: it seemed like it was like the day before a Test or something.
‘Ultimately, we were having a break which was planned before the series. And if we’re winning that series, it’s probably not news, and no one cares if [Australia opener] Travis Head’s in that video: everyone’s probably absolutely loving it. And that is sport.
‘We were struggling as a side, I was struggling as a player. But you shouldn’t be putting yourself in a position like that, to be honest – any human being, let alone a professional sportsman. That was a really tough period for me, and it certainly wasn’t my favourite Christmas I’ve had in my life.
‘But the one thing looking back on it was the support I had from the ECB. It was not what they needed. I thank Keysy, Baz, Stokes for all the support. I did hold my hands up, but I’m not very proud of it.
Duckett was first selected for England’s Test side in 2016, but ran into controversy the following year when he reportedly poured a drink over bowler James Anderson’s head during a night out.
He became a key player as an opener for England from 2022, adapting well to the team’s ‘Bazball’ style of play.
However, Duckett himself has acknowledged the ‘ridiculously big dip’ in his form over the last year, while the incident in Noosa – during a disastrous Ashes tour – placed him again at the centre of a drunken night out controversy.
‘I am sorry for that incident, it was not professional and shouldn’t have happened’, he told the Telegraph last week.
‘There is no hiding away from it.’
Duckett’s speeding prosecution was dealt with behind closed doors last Friday without a formal court hearing.
The cricketer entered his guilty plea online and will now be written to with instructions for settling the £1,100 court bill.
