BEN BACK AT LORD’S
But Harmison says star shouldn’t have to live like a monk
BEN STOKES will be back in an England shirt on Saturday morning but could still face sanctions over his part in a late-night Bristol brawl.
Stokes was given the green light by the ECB to resume his career after missing the second Test at Lord’s to attend the trial at which he was yesterday found not guilty of affray.
And the 27-year-old all-rounder has no qualms about returning to action at Trent Bridge just days after such an emotionally draining week in court. It’ll mean the axe for one of the players who appeared in the crushing win over India at the weekend.
But it is not an unconditional return since the Cricket Discipline Commission will now conduct their own hearing into the behaviour of both Stokes and Alex Hales to decide whether they have brought the game into disrepute.
The CDC chairman Tim O’Gorman, a former player and qualified solicitor, will put together a three-person panel for a hearing that is likely to take place in the autumn, certainly once the international season has finished on September 11.
Should they decide Stokes and Hales have brought the game into disrepute they will be able to impose fines and/or suspensions to the players who have missed a number of matches already.
Meanwhile, Steve Harmison sifted through the silt of Stokes’s nocturnal adventures and yesterday warned: “Minders shadowing cricketers on nights out is not the answer.”
Like many onlookers, he feels English cricket’s whole off-the-field culture has been on trial for seven days in Bristol as well as the all-rounder.
Harmison said: “First and foremost I’m relieved for Ben and his family and I’m relieved for everyone connected with the England team.”
The former paceman added: “People say Ben should not have been out so late. But if England cricketers need bodyguards around them when they venture out of their hotel, they shouldn’t be going out.”