Cricket: Stokes’s big brawl
Since the start of his cricket career, Ben Stokes has had a knack for getting into trouble, said Alex West in The Sun. In 2011, the England all-rounder spent the night in a cell, and received a caution, for “obstructing” a policeman on a night out; last year, he was given a six-month driving ban for speeding past roadworks. But last week, the 26-year-old found himself in his worst scrape yet. At 2.30am, just hours after playing against West Indies, Stokes got into a “street brawl” in Bristol. In a damning video of the incident, Stokes – accompanied by his England teammate Alex Hales – appears to punch one man, exchanging blows with him on the floor before being pulled away. He then turns his attention to another man, flooring him with a right hook. One of the men had to be hospitalised for facial injuries; Stokes, who broke a finger in the fight, was arrested on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm.
Has Stokes “lost his mind”, asked Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail. True, it has been claimed that he got involved because one of his victims was shouting homophobic abuse at a pair of gay men. But that doesn’t justify throwing 15 punches in the space of a minute. For a leading athlete, it’s “appalling” behaviour – and it couldn’t have come at a worse time. With the Ashes starting in Australia next month, Stokes and Hales have been suspended indefinitely. The police are now investigating the case and even if they dismiss it, the two players could still receive bans. It is therefore very unlikely indeed that Stokes will make it to Australia. This was meant to be the moment when he cemented his position as “one of the greatest players of his era”; instead, he might find himself in court – or even prison.
But cricket must “share some of the blame”, said Lawrence Booth in The Mail on Sunday. For too long, it has celebrated Stokes as a hard-living “man’s man”, the spiritual successor to Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff. If only the England camp had kept him on a “tighter rein”, this mess might have been avoided. England’s selectors now face an “impossible” task, said Steve James in The Times. Stokes is a “once-in-a-generation cricketer”, the only member of the side who is “irreplaceable”. Without him, England’s chance of winning the Ashes has all but evaporated. Stokes, by contrast, could actually do well out of this affair, said Barney Ronay in The Guardian. Earlier this year, he became the Indian Premier League’s most expensive foreign player, earning £1.7m for just 14 games. If he does sit out the Ashes, he’ll get the chance to rake in even more money by playing in the Big Bash, Australia’s lucrative Twenty20 competition. “The Ashes needs Stokes more than he needs the Ashes.”