Public deserve to see Ben play

BEN STOKES should be allowed to go about his professional life and put this episode behind him. As the ghost writer of his autobiography Firestarter, I would say that, wouldn’t I? But I know him and over the past 10 months, England’s former vicecaptain has kept his counsel on the events of last September. There is no more popular player in the England dressing room and during several hours spent in his company at the Stokes family home, along with his wife Clare, and children Layton and Libby, I have come to see why. In that environment he is engaging, fun, self-deprecating. He has an infectious character and is devotedly loyal to his friends. He has already missed an Ashes series through an ECB-imposed suspension; a series which would potentially have been, at 26, the series of his life. I argue he has missed enough cricket and think for a second about the paying public — why deprive them of England’s trump card any longer? My view is that he should play on Saturday.