England pacer Brydon Carse has had his breakthrough Test season ever since making his debut in October 2024, months after being banned for three months for breaching England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) gambling regulations in the past.
Carse, who will turn 30 on July 31, after making his fourth straight Test appearance in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, credited his skipper Ben Stokes for helping him through the rough back into the spotlight in the national set-up.
Carse’s international career was hampered by the three-month ban after he was deemed to have placed 303 bets on matches that he wasn’t a part of between 2017 and 2019.
“There’s no denying that when all of that stuff surfaced, I was actually on my way down to play a game for Durham at Warwickshire, and yeah, my heart sunk, trying to piece together what had happened six, seven years ago,” Carse told Michael Atherton in a chat on Sky Sports.
“But I think that whole process that I went through and the support that I had from Durham and from England, and the lessons that I learned. I’m a firm believer that everything does happen for a reason, and I’ve often said that.
“It’s something I obviously deeply regret now. But I think it’s something that going forward in my playing career and away from cricket in my personal life, it certainly, I feel, will make me stronger in certain situations that I come across.”
Sharing the Durham county, the South Africa-born Carse revealed how the relationship with Stokes has benefitted him over the years.
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“He’s (Stokes) certainly been pivotal in everything that I’ve gone about on the field and off the field, and someone that I respect and someone that I’m very thankful for the relationship and friendship that I have with him,” Carse added.
“Ben has been someone who I’ve constantly had a relationship with from a young age and have spoken to him about many things.
“He was one of the first people who I did pick the phone up and ring. He was brilliant.
“The following morning, we caught up for a coffee and we had a great chat. He was very honest with me and gave me his advice, which I naturally took straight away.”
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Having picked up nine wickets in the series, Carse has been Stokes’ steady pace hand against India since last month. Carse also slammed his maiden Test fifty in the second-innings of the Lord’s Test that England went onto win by only 22 runs.
