Senseless about-turn profoundly damages game and its ideals
Decision to recall Stokes shows arrogance and sends wrong message to the next generation
Aman is innocent until proved guilty, and that applies to Ben Stokes. However, the notion that a man facing a charge of affray – a crime sufficiently serious to carry the possibility of a prison sentence for anyone convicted – should blithely be picked to play cricket for England is profoundly damaging for the game, its ideals and its place in our culture.
It is appalling that it has taken four months for the Crown Prosecution Service to decide that Stokes should be prosecuted. One can easily understand, given what a great cricketer he is and how pitiful England’s present performance is, why England’s management are so desperate to have him back in the side.
But the decision they took before the Ashes tour – that until a decision about whether to charge him, he should not represent England – was right. And the logical extension of that decision is that until Stokes has had the chance to clear his name in court, he should not play at national level.
The change of mind now is senseless and shows a dereliction towards the game. It makes no sense to take Stokes to New Zealand, where his presence is far less necessary than it would have been in Australia.
Also, the fact that it has been decided he has a case to answer makes the situation far more delicate than it was when the original decision not to take him abroad was made. The last thing Stokes, or English cricket, needs is the taunting that might be expected from over-refreshed fans in the Antipodes. He could be kept under curfew when not playing – which would not be pleasant for anyone – but exposure to a boisterous crowd at the ground is a very different matter.
Whatever the conclusion as to Stokes’s guilt or innocence, by saying he can play, the ECB is effectively trivialising the incident. That shows an unpleasant degree of arrogance towards the law. It makes a mockery of the already debauched idea of cricket as a metaphor for life. Strip away the last vestiges of cricket as one of the trappings of civilisation, and the game starts to lose its point.
The trivialisation of any poor behaviour by cricketers is also disastrous in terms of attracting young people to the game, and especially boys and young men.
The message that sort of approach sends could, if taken undiluted, encourage appalling standards among the next generation of players. Test cricket already has one foot in the grave: it is hardly intelligent to seek a means of tipping the rest of the body into the hole, too. Obsessed with money as the ECB is, it is hardly surprising that it has thrown propriety to the winds and called up Stokes. Given the slug-like pace of our legal system,
It is about time the ECB learnt that the game is bigger than the cash register
it fears him not just missing the New Zealand tour, but also that his absence from two highly competitive Test and one-day series against Pakistan and India will depress turnstile receipts.
That, though, is too bad. It is about time the ECB learnt that the game is bigger than the cash register.
Sadly, the ECB is making rather a habit of taking decisions about the management of the game that almost everyone apart from itself realises are damaging cricket. Letting Stokes play for his country while facing criminal charges is of a piece with allowing the saturation of the game by T20, marginalising the County Championship and keeping Test cricket off free-to-air television.
The counties and MCC should stop rattling their begging bowls long enough to hold the ECB more to account. At this rate, English cricket will need a reputation manager more than a better coach.