Threat to Ben Stokes’ captaincy (Photo: PTI)
Ben Stokes, Nightclub Incident: Will Ben Stokes no longer be the captain of England? This question has arisen after what happened in the nightclub after the victory in the Lord’s Test against New Zealand. After the nightclub incident, Ben Stokes’ captaincy is at stake. However, it is not yet clear what happened in the nightclub? But from the ECB’s stance regarding it, it is clear that the matter is serious. Ben Stokes is the captain of the England Test team, who along with his team bowler Gut Atkinson did something in a nightclub, which the England and Wales Cricket Board i.e. ECB has considered a violation of the team’s protocol.
Sword on captaincy, out of second test!
The incident at the nightclub took place on the morning of June 8 and in the evening of the same day the ECB said that information about the incident has been given to the cricket regulator. Investigation will be going on, hence both Stokes and Atkinson may not be seen playing in the second test against New Zealand. Stokes and Atkinson were reported to have been involved in the incident at the nightclub along with players from Saracens Rugby Club, who were celebrating their season finale there. It is believed that the incident occurred due to a dispute between Atkinson and an unnamed academy player.
ECB started investigating the matter
However, the board has made it clear that the ECB is currently investigating the violation of team protocol, which came to light after the end of the first men’s Test match against New Zealand. England won the first Test played at Lord’s from New Zealand by 115 runs. This was the second shortest Test in terms of balls finished in the history of cricket, in which Atkinson took a total of 7 wickets in both the innings. Apart from scoring 12 runs, Ben Stokes took 1 wicket in this test.
Was suspended 9 years ago, will captaincy go away this time?
Now all eyes are on the investigation related to the nightclub incident. By the way, even before this in 2017, Stokes had a fight in a nightclub. He was seen punching someone outside a club in Bristol. Then Stokes was arrested in that case and presented in the court and he was also suspended from the team for some time. After this time’s nightclub incident, both his position and captaincy in the team are at stake.
