Ben Stokes arrested: Should England's star player be considered for the Ashes series after latest incident?
With the news of his arrest following the hospitalisation of a 27 year-old man emerging less than 24 hours before England announce their squad for this winter’s Ashes series, the timing could not have been worse
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Your support makes all the difference.Stuart Broad tells an interesting story in his autobiography about Ben Stokes and Mark Wood staging a fake fight during a team quiz night on England’s pre-Ashes bonding trip to Spain in 2015.
Broad sets the scene on this fancy dress evening, with Stokes, dressed up as a “chavvy Brit abroad”, being called a “c***” by his Durham team-mate in front of everyone, including new coach Trevor Bayliss.
“Before Trev knew what was happening, ‘Bang!’, Woody was lying on the floor in a heap after Stokesy had apparently knocked his lights out,” says Broad.
“Now bearing in mind Trev had already witnessed Stokesy almost destroy a set of golf clubs with his bare hands after shanking a six iron, he could have been forgiven for being a bit concerned. His face was a picture, along with those of the rest of the management.
“After a moment of silence, the room burst into laughter as Woody jumped back on his feet unscathed. I looked at Trev and his face just said: ‘What the hell has just happened here?’”
Bayliss and the rest of England’s management must have been asking themselves the same question today when they heard Stokes had been arrested on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm and then released under police investigation following a bust-up in a Bristol nightclub in the early hours of Monday morning.
This time, with a 27-year-old man taken to hospital after sustaining facial injuries, it is certainly no laughing matter.
And with the news emerging less than 24 hours before England announce their squad for this winter’s Ashes series, the timing could not have been worse.
If a story could have been designed to cause maximum damage to England’s campaign in Australia this is it.
Whatever the results of the investigation – and Avon and Somerset Police have made a public appeal for witnesses – for Stokes to put himself in this position was reckless at best.
This is a player, remember, who is England’s Test vice-captain. Forget just how valuable Stokes is to this team on purely cricketing grounds.
He is a senior leadership figure within this team and that brings with it a responsibility to behave in the right way.
England, and Test captain Joe Root and Bayliss in particular, have every reason to feel let down by a man they trusted enough to appoint vice-captain.
When he was sent home from an England Lions tour of Australia in early 2013 for repeatedly breaking team curfews, Stokes did everything in his power, including getting character references from team-mates during an internal England & Wales Cricket Board investigation, to prove he could be trusted again and fulfil his potential.
Within the year he had returned to Australia with England, made his Test debut and hit a brilliant maiden hundred at Perth.
Even the incident in 2014 when was ruled out of the World T20 after breaking his hand punching a locker in Barbados was dealt with maturely and contritely in the following months by a man who had appeared to have learned from his previous mistakes.
Despite his numerous on-field transgressions that leave him one demerit point away from being banned for an Ashes Test, Stokes is a decent man off the field who is always generous with his time to the media and fans. At the age of 26 and with two children now, he had appeared to have grown up.
That’s one of the reasons he was appointed vice-captain.
Speaking earlier this year, Stokes said: “It’s a really good feeling that the people who make the big decisions think you’re worthy of the vice-captaincy. It’s a huge honour.”
It’s an honour that might now be taken away from him depending on what senior figures at the ECB make of all this.
At this stage, the official party line is that Stokes will still be included in the Ashes squad when it is announced on Wednesday morning.
Indeed, at this stage it has not been proven he has done anything wrong.
Whether or not he will able to travel, though, remains up in the air. If Stokes was to be charged at any time before England’s departure on October 28 then he could be prevented from leaving the country depending on bail conditions.
If the investigation continues beyond that date then there is the nightmare possibility that he could be called to return to the UK by the police to answer any charges.
Then there is the possibility that he remains under investigation and he has this whole sorry case hanging over his head.
Whatever the outcome, will Stokes really be able to fully concentrate on cricket in Australia? This is a tour where England players are a target for Australian abuse on and off the field. Does this story, even if he is cleared of any wrongdoing, now give license to any loudmouth Aussie to try and goad Stokes into punching them if they come across him on a night out?
Indeed, this whole sorry mess is the last thing England needed and could ultimately cost them the Ashes.
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