Stokes now in danger of missing the third Test
BEN Stokes risks missing England’s third Test against India if his trial for affray drags on.
England must already do without their talisman — who sealed a thrilling win over Virat Kohli’s side at Edgbaston on Saturday — for the second Test which begins at Lord’s on Thursday.
And there is now an element of uncertainty over whether Stokes, who denies the charges, will be back in time to take his place at Trent Bridge a week on Saturday.
Judge Peter Blair QC told the jury at Bristol Crown Court yesterday that they should expect to be in court until the ‘beginning to middle of next week’.
England will need Stokes, 27, in Nottingham no later than a week on Thursday, so that he has two days training with the squad.
Yet yesterday’s proceedings suggest the trial may not run as quickly as some had hoped.
The prosecution had intended to start presenting evidence but, due to a lengthy legal argument and extensive CCTV footage being shown, only the opening statement was completed.
Stokes cut a solemn figure in the dock alongside his co-defendants, Ryan Ali, 28, and Ryan Hale, 27.
The prosecution’s opening included allegations that Stokes had left Ali and Hale unconscious, called a nightclub doorman a ‘c***’ and mocked two gay men in a ‘derogatory’ way during a fracas outside a Bristol nightclub last September.
Prosecutor Nicholas Corsellis described Durham all-rounder Stokes as a man ‘of promise’, telling the jury that he is a ‘professional cricket player who has reached the top of his profession and represented his country’.
Yet he reminded the jury that the ‘past success, fame or good deeds’ of the defendants did not absolve them of their duty to obey the law.
Stokes had arrived in a silver minicab wearing a blue suit and red tie, flanked by his wife Clare and agent Neil Fairbrother, the former England and Lancashire batsman.
His support team also included Chris Haynes, communications head at the ECB.
Stokes’s participation in the third Test will be considered crucial, given how he steered England to victory on Saturday.
A stunning spell of bowling saw him take four wickets for 40.
Today, his trial is expected to resume with evidence from the doorman of Mbargo nightclub. ICC chief executive David Richardson has said they will not stand for behaviour that puts cricket’s integrity into ‘jeopardy’.
Richardson was delivering the MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture at Lord’s and addressed some recent controveries in the game, saying: ‘Cricket’s DNA is based on integrity, but we have seen too much behaviour of late that puts that in jeopardy and this has to stop.
‘Sledging that amounts to no more than personal abuse, fielders giving send-offs to batsmen who’ve been dismissed, unnecessary physical contact, players threatening not to play in protest against an umpire’s decision and ball-tampering.
‘The public reaction has been clear. Cheating is cheating and it’s not what we signed up for.