ENGLAND CHARGE STOKES AND HALES
But hearings won’t take place until after autumn Sri Lanka tour
BEN STOKES and Alex Hales have been charged with bringing the game into disrepute by the ECB following their infamous, early-hours street fracas last September.
Stokes, 27, was acquitted of affray along with two other men at Bristol Crown Court last month, while Hales faced no criminal charge.
However, the saga is to drag on until the end of the year with the cricket discipline commission’s hearing into two counts of breaching the governing body’s code of conduct which has been confirmed for December 5 and 7 in London.
The commission chairman Tim O’Gorman will be joined by one-cap Test bowler Mike Smith, now a Bristol-based solicitor, and Chris Tickle, an employment tribunal judge formerly on the committee at Warwickshire.
They have the power to suspend or fine the players, although, in weighing up their options, they will also consider the fact that Stokes has already missed six Test matches — including the entire 2017-18 Ashes — and lost the England vice-captaincy.
The scheduling means the pair will tour Sri Lanka this autumn before learning their fate. Both are set to be named today in the limited-overs party that flies to Colombo at the end of this month.
Stokes will then stay on as a member of a Test squad certain to include significant changes for the three-match series in November.
Stuart Broad is expected to be a high-profile casualty for that section of the trip, although captain Joe Root went into bat for the veteran seamer ahead of Friday’s selection meeting with Ed Smith and James Taylor when he said: ‘I think Stuart’s experience will be vital in Sri Lanka.
‘He has had a lot of experience in the subcontinent and had a lot of success with teams out there, so I think it is very important that you utilise experience in those testing conditions.’
Root, who was speaking at Village Hotels nationwide community project in Leeds, also threw his support behind Moeen Ali following revelations in his upcoming autobiography that an Australian player called him ‘Osama’ during the 2015 Ashes.
‘There is no place for that in the sport. Whatever happened is for him to elaborate on. It is Mo’s story. He should tell it,’ said Root, who claimed not to be party to the incident.
‘All I want to do is give him the support that he needs to feel comfortable with the whole situation.
‘The best thing about the dressing room is we all look after each other very well.
‘Mo is a massive part of that. He is normally leading the way with cracking the jokes and bringing the humour, so it was quite upsetting to hear he has had that to deal with.’