Durham stand by Brydon Carse after bar arrest as Cricket Regulator investigates
Durham will keep picking England bowler Brydon Carse unless told otherwise, head coach Ryan Campbell has told BBC Sport, despite the 31-year-old being briefly arrested on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly after Durham's win over Derbyshire on Saturday.
Carse was detained outside Molly Malone's bar and later de-arrested, according to Derbyshire Police, who said they are looking into allegations of assault. The police force confirmed a man had been briefly held before being released without charge. BBC Sport
The Cricket Regulator — the body that polices the sport's integrity rules in England — has since opened an investigation. England removed Carse from their squad for the second Test against Pakistan as a result. Durham, though, selected him for their County Championship match against Gloucestershire, where he took a wicket in his first over and finished with figures of 2-51 from 12 overs. BBC Sport
Campbell's stance is straightforward. Durham, who are pushing for promotion back to Division One of the County Championship — the top tier of England's four-day domestic competition — see no reason to stand their player down while the investigation runs its course. The club named Carse in their squad for the Championship run-in starting in Derby earlier in August, and he was set to make his first red-ball appearance of the season after returning from international duty. Durham Cricket
This is not the first time Carse's career has been disrupted by off-field matters. In May 2024, the Cricket Regulator banned him from all cricket for 16 months — 13 of those suspended for two years — after he was charged with placing 303 bets on cricket matches. The three-month active portion kept him out of the game until 28 August 2024. The Guardian; ESPNcricinfo
Since returning from that ban, Carse has re-established himself as an England international, earning selection for the Test side. His removal from the Pakistan series squad now places his international availability in question once more, with the Cricket Regulator's investigation ongoing and no timeline publicly disclosed.
For Durham, the calculus is different. They are in the middle of a Championship run-in where every result matters for their promotion push, and their head coach has made clear the club will not act preemptively. Carse, for his part, let the ball do his talking against Gloucestershire — striking with his first over and bowling 12 tidy overs for 51 runs in the longer format where patience and stamina matter as much as raw pace.
The situation leaves two timelines running in parallel. Durham will continue to field a bowler who is performing on the pitch, while the Cricket Regulator determines whether the events outside Molly Malone's bar warrant further sanction. Until the regulator concludes its work, Campbell's position is that selection decisions stay with the county.
