‘Babes and Bikinis’ dominate England players Ashes series win celebrations

SYDNEY - England cricketer stars went the whole hog in celebrating their Ashes series triumph in Australia, and according to Mark Chipperfield, a journalist and travel writer, cocktail waitresses and Hollywood stars were present at the event that lasted more than the duration of Australia’s two innings in the just concluded Sydney Test.

Middle-order batsmen Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood led the celebrations, and it seemed to be in the natural order of things, given that England have won their first Ashes series in Australia for 24 years, and did not want to disappoint.

According to Chipperfield, after five hours of frolics, fun and quality quaffing, most sportsmen, you might think, would welcome a spot of shut eye before a bone-jolting 177-mile bus ride to Canberra for a friendly tomorrow.

Not so sporting stalwarts Pietersen and Collingwood. With England’s reputation restored in fine style on the cricket pitch, the duo decided that their countrymen’s stamina needed proving in the swimming pool.

So while most of their team-mates stumbled off to bed in their plush, five-star hotel after dinner at the Flying Fish restaurant and an evening of merrymaking, the pair decided 5 a.m. was much too early to call it a night after their historic victory in the Fifth Test.

And what a party it was. Along with some friends, they hired several 1,000-pound private beach-style huts or cabanas at The Pool Club, the city’s most exclusive - and notorious - party venue, located on top of the luxurious Ivy nightclub.

Known locally as “babes and bikinis”, the club features an outdoor deck area, complete with a huge pool, cocktail waitresses and a host of visiting Hollywood stars.
Rapper Tinie Tempah, who comes from Plumstead in London, was so delighted to see his cricketing heroes that he insisted on posing for a photograph of himself arm in arm with Pietersen, who instantly posted it on Twitter with the caption: “Partying with Tinie…..Madness.”

“There were a whole bunch of them partying hard,” said one staff member.

He added: “They had a great time in the pool and they were ordering round after round. They had all brought their swimming trunks. They couldn’t wait to get in. The pool is always packed and the bikini-clad hostesses make ordering drinks a real delight.”

While Pietersen and Collingwood were letting their hair down at The Pool Club, team-mate Graeme Swann was on his own spending spree on the other side of the city.

Swann, too, had decided the night was too young to end and he had headed to a casino. But while luck might have been on his side on the pitch, it deserted him when the chips were down.

Swann didn’t appear to mind. “I seem to remember losing all my money magnificently quickly playing cards in the casino last night,” he boasted on Twitter the next day.

But despite partying late into the night, all seemed determined there would be no repetition of the infamous moment, during England’s last triumph in Australia in the 1986 - 1987 series, when Ian Botham and Allan Lamb threw Elton John fully clothed into a jacuzzi.

The morning after, as the team boarded the coach, several were wearing dark glasses, most were pale and several had baseball caps shielding them from scrutiny.

Desperate to avoid a “Freddie Flintoff moment” - when the all-rounder was photographed almost falling down the steps of his hotel in 2005 - the team asked camera crews to avoid close-ups.

By now even Pietersen was feeling the effects of his night out. “275kms to Canberra and NO toilet on the bus … Hmmm!! No sick bags either…. Not sure I’m going to be popular on this journey,” he wrote. (ANI)