The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has decided to drop Nottinghamshire’s Joe Clarke and Yorkshire’s Tom Kohler-Cadmore from the England Lions squad that is touring in India, after learning their involvements in the WhatsApp sexual conquest game.

During the rape trial of the suspended Worcestershire cricketer Alex Hepburn, it was revealed that the former Worcestershire teammates Clarke and Kohler-Cadmore were involved in the WhatsApp sexual conquest game along with Hepburn.

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In 2017, Hepburn has faced two charges on the rape accusation. During that case, the WhatsApp sexual conquest game has been revealed where Hepburn, Clarke and Kohler-Cadmore were involved in keeping a record of the women with whom they had slept.

Talking about that matter, the 23-year-old Hepburn said according to Telegraph Sport, “It was nothing more than immature chat between a group of friends. No thought went into it.”

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On the other hand, England Lions is currently touring in India to play five-match bilateral List A series and two unofficial Tests (four-day game) against India A. While the List A series will be played from 23 to 31 January at Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala), both unofficial Tests will be played at Wayanad (Kerala) from 7 February.

The 22-year-old Joe Clarke and the 24-year-old Tom Kohler-Cadmore both were in the England Lions’ List A and unofficial Test squads for the India tour. But now they have been dropped and as a result, both have returned to their homes.

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According to some reports, both Clarke and Kohler-Cadmore can face the disciplinary action.

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Talking about this matter, the new director of England men’s cricket team, Ashley Giles clarified that he wanted to construct the English cricket team as the most respected team in the world.

Giles said according to The Telegraph, “We still want people to play cricket hard. We don’t want bland cricket played out on the field. What is that line? It is hard sometimes to know what it is but I want us to play tough cricket on the pitch. But as much as I want us to be the best team in the world, I also want us to be the most respected team in the world over how we go about things. That is going to be challenged. There are going to be things that pop up that would go against that but it is part of my role to manage that.”

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“The process in my role of consistently challenging and checking what we are doing and what the dressing room is doing is important. I can’t do it on my own. I’m not going to be in a tracksuit on the ground. We have some very good people in there I need to rely on and tap into. Again how we play and how we are viewed outwardly is important to Tom and to Colin but also really important to me is how we are seen and respected.”