In response to recent media comment, Neil Broom and Aaron Redmond have today acknowledged that they were charged with Serious Misconduct by New Zealand Cricket (NZC) while in Chennai, India on tour with the New Zealand A team in August.
NZCPA executive manager Heath Mills said the two were charged with Serious Misconduct by NZC after breaching team security protocols by leaving the hotel late at night to visit a nightspot in Chennai.
Mills said he was very disappointed in the actions of the two players. “The players fully accept that they should not have left the hotel, and also showed poor judgement in heading to a night spot and drinking, given preparations required for upcoming fixtures and the security position the team was in,” said Mills.
“We accept this was a breach of team protocols,” said Redmond. “We did not inform team management that we would be leaving the hotel and had been advised that this sort of action was not appropriate in any event.
“Unfortunately when we decided to leave the night spot we were picked up by police following another poor decision to hand out money to people living on the street, whereupon a crowd developed. The police initially took us back to the station and then arranged for a taxi to take us back to the hotel,” Redmond added.
“We accepted that this was a serious breach of team protocols particularly given the time, effort and resource NZC and the NZCPA invested to ensure the team and players were safe at all times while in the sub continent” said Broom.
It is important to note that no crime had been committed nor charges laid against the players.
“We deeply regret the incident and wish to apologise to New Zealand Cricket,” said Broom.
“We also wish to apologise to other stakeholders in the game including the fans for our inappropriate behaviour while on tour,” said Redmond.
The two players feel it is important that they acknowledge the fact that they were involved in this incident to ensure no other player is unfairly associated with the misconduct.
