Michael Vaughan has accused certain members of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) of plotting against Ben Stokes and using the media to promote the all-rounder’s sacking. Even though the captain will soon return from his suspension, Vaughan thinks that this alleged conspiracy would cause a rift between Stokes and the board, which would impact England men’s cricket for several months.
Following England’s first Test victory over New Zealand, Stokes and Gus Atkinson violated the ECB’s midnight curfew regulations and got into a fight at a bar. The ECB suspended both players from the second Test and opened an investigation into the event. There were rumors that Stokes was thinking about resigning as captain, that the ECB was considering taking him out, and that the all-rounder would even retire.
Ben Stokes Set For Return In 3rd Test
Although the all-rounder played for his county, Durham, when England faced the Kiwis at The Oval, coach Brendon McCullum expressed his concern for Stokes on Monday. Although the ECB has not yet disclosed the results of its investigation, there are suspicions in England that the board’s Cricket Regulator will back Stokes and Atkinson’s argument that the curfew regulations were unclear.
McCullum stated that Stokes would return for the decisive third Test following the loss to tie the series at one.
“The circus – and that is what it is – will roll on to Nottingham on Tuesday. I am glad that Ben Stokes will be back, but I do not see it being the end of the trouble facing our game and Test team. Leadership in any walk of life is all about trust within each partnership,” Vaughan wrote in his column for The Telegraph.
Strong captain-coach relationships, such as those between Trevor Bayliss and Eoin Morgan, formed the foundation of England’s most prosperous periods, according to Vaughan. He questions whether relationships between the captain, coach McCullum, director of cricket Rob Key, senior ECB officials, and even vice-captain Harry Brook can entirely heal because he believes the Stokes incident has undermined trust among England’s leadership group.
“In the days after the latest crisis first emerged, the messaging out of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) was very clear. Somebody, maybe more than one person, wanted Stokes gone as captain. That message was loud and clear. This is not any old cricketer we are talking about. It is Ben Stokes, one of our greatest ever, who has given so much for the shirt. Whoever those people are: how can they possibly work with Stokes again? How can he trust them? And how can they come back from such a misguided thought?” he added.
Vaughan claimed in a different interview with the BBC that the ECB ‘briefed’ the media in an effort to fire Stokes. In his editorial, Vaughan admitted that Stokes’s actions initially placed the ECB in a challenging situation, but he believed the board exacerbated the situation by prolonging the procedure. He maintained that a prompt resolution would have avoided the problem developing into a protracted diversion.
