Sydney: Suspended England all-rounder Ben Stokes is planning to play first-class cricket in New Zealand, officials said Tuesday, potentially paving the way for a dramatic Ashes call-up.
Social media went into overdrive late Monday evening when a picture showing Stokes leaving Heathrow airport sparked speculation he was set to join his England teammates in Australia.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) poured cold water on the suggestion and said that the 26-year-old was simply heading to New Zealand to visit family. However, it soon emerged that Stokes will play first-class cricket for Canterbury during his trip to keep himself in shape if required for the Ashes.
Stokes is barred from international cricket as British police investigate his alleged involvement in a late-night fight outside a Bristol nightclub. But the suspension announced in September does not apply to domestic cricket and that clears the way for him to don Canterbury colours.
Stokes was born in New Zealand but moved to England as a child when his father Gerard, a former rugby league international, took a coaching role. Both his parents have since moved back to Christchurch, the Canterbury region’s main city.
The ECB emphasised that Stokes was on a private trip that had not been set up by the organisation. “His travel arrangements have not been arranged by the ECB,” it said in a statement. “He is not on his way to the Ashes, England Lions or any other official training camps with the England set-up,” it added.
Curfew imposed
Sydney: England cricket chief Andrew Strauss has asserted that his players are not ‘thugs’ and there is no drinking culture in the team, as he slapped a midnight curfew on the Ashes tour, reports said Tuesday. The move followed Jonny Bairstow’s headbutt of Cameron Bancroft in a Perth bar late last month. Director of cricket, Strauss has been quoted as saying by the ‘Daily Telegraph’ that Bairstow ‘bumped’ heads with Bancroft in what he described as an innocent greeting ‘that he does with his mates’. But in a meeting with the players at the team hotel in Strauss has told all players that they need to be ‘smarter’ and cannot be out of the hotel after midnight.
Agence France-Presse