Crazy that Stokes is Ashes risk
Ben stokes has been absolutely brilliant for the game, not only in this country but around the world. In an era when Test cricket is under threat, having someone with the character, energy and exuberance that Stokes brings to the game is huge.
I would have Stokes in my side every day of the week, and I can’t think of a better vice-captain for Joe Root. he’s very loyal and very popular among players and fans because what you see is what you get.
he has a desperate will to win for his country and wears his heart on his sleeve, and the way he behaves is what makes him the cricketer he is.
But pretty soon he’s going to have to buy a Mario Balotelli ‘Why Always Me?’ T-shirt because controversy seems to follow him around. Nearly every time he gets out someone gives him a send-off and, make no mistake, he is no angel himself.
he does cross the line occasionally, which is why yesterday’s demerit point was his third in the past year, and at some stage he has to look at himself because it can’t always be someone else’s fault. But this latest sanction — for swearing at himself after being edged through the slips for four — is absolutely ridiculous. I don’t condone swearing, and I’ve seen kids imitate their heroes at schoolboy level, but give the lad a break. It’s incredible that he can’t turn away from the batsman and swear — having been in the field all day — without picking up a slap on the wrist from the ICC.
It’s different if the swearing is aimed towards the batsman — and you could argue that this was the case when Kagiso Rabada swore in Stokes’s direction after dismissing him at Lord’s this summer, which earned the South African a demerit point. And I hate to see a bowler giving a batsman a send-off after getting him out, as Shannon Gabriel appeared to do after dismissing Stokes on day one here. No action was taken against Gabriel, so there is little consistency.
We are in danger of creating teams full of characterless cricketers. Players will be frightened to show any emotions and it’ll make for a very dull game.
having said all that, people know that Stokes has a fiery temper so will try to get him to react. This winter the Aussies will be going at him with subtle little digs around the bat, knowing that he’s liable to gob off and possibly get banned for a Test.
If I were Root I’d be tempted to tell him to get another demerit point during the third Test at Lord’s, so he’d reach the fourpoint threshold for a ban and miss two of the forthcoming oneday matches, for which he may have been rested anyway, rather than an Ashes game.
he will not want the threat of suspension hanging over him in Australia — particularly in a fiveTest series in that heat. he’ll be walking a tightrope, just because he swore at himself after being hit for a boundary. It’s mad.