Ben Stokes

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On the allegedly unreliable witnesses: there are many broader questions here. e.g. when is it permissible for (potential) witnesses to be cavorting with the media? What are the relevant rules in different countries?

I'm not aware of any...

[K]

e.g. S. Australia's Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions just says:

"If you are a witness in criminal proceedings be aware that speaking with the media prior to the matter being finalised may result in your evidence becoming contaminated and/or compromising the case whilst it is still before the court. We therefore recommend that you give very careful consideration to this issue."

https://www.dpp.sa.gov.au/was/witnesses ... anttospeak

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Stokes thanks law-change after 'misapprehension'

How could I resist quoting this new headline (without context)?

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/ ... -dismissal

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After Durham's appointment of Bancroft as captain comes this:

Ben Stokes commits to Durham on three-year deal

(It's a contract extension.)

Durham don't seem to worry much about character defects, do they?

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Alex Hales on moving on from Bristol incident

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/ ... ng-bristol

[K]

Ben Stokes: Bristol may be 'best thing that could have happened to me'

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/ ... appened-me

"I used to love going out and celebrating with the lads. But we can do that in the hotel and I don't miss it. I don't feel that urge any more. Once you make the transition to not doing it then you don't miss it

"It's pointless. You get recognised and then, after someone has had a few ego boosters, a few vodka and whatevers, they feel they can come up to you and say whatever they feel. There are people ready to target you everywhere you go. I prefer staying in and chatting nonsense with my team-mates."


[The trial and verdict may have been the best thing that happened to Ben.]

[Donny]

Saw him and Steve Smith batting together, in an IPL match, last night. Although Smith scored 70 odd, he was unable to launch, over the last two overs.

[K]

Hales & Stokes both made it into England's preliminary WC squad.

But cricinfo reports that Nottinghamshire has a statement on their website that

"Alex Hales has made himself unavailable for selection for personal reasons and no timetable has been set for his return to action".

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England's Alex Hales banned for recreational drug use

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/ ... l-drug-use

"The England selectors are not thought to have known about the test result at the time the squad was announced.

According to a report in the Guardian, he is currently serving a 21-day ban after returning a second positive test, having pulled out of Nottinghamshire's Royal London Cup campaign, shortly after the World Cup squad was announced, for undisclosed personal reasons.
...

The drugs violation is understood to have been detected after Hales underwent a routine hair-follicle test, which all professional men's cricketers and centrally contracted women's players undergo at the start and finish of every season. The policy was introduced in 2013 in the wake of the death of Surrey's Tom Maynard, and can detect banned substances in the system for up to three months."

[K]

A. Miller (cricinfo):

"... the situation is a personal tragedy for Hales, the circumstances of which will lean ever more heavily into the "duty of care" aspect of the ECB's policy regarding recreational drugs.

If, as has been suggested, Hales has been struggling since the Bristol trial, amid the divulgence of both his unsavoury role in the night's proceedings, and of details of his personal life that would not have come to light but for that new-found notoriety, then the punitive nature of the ECB's decision will do little to aid his state of mind.

He will therefore need close monitoring and support - from the PCA, from Nottinghamshire, and from the England team from which he has been so summarily drop-kicked - to ensure that the slippery slope, on which his two positive drugs tests already indicate he has stepped, does not become exponentially steeper in the coming weeks."

[ronrat]

Not sure how the ECB has "a duty of care" over the use of illegal drugs.

The pommy press was all over Warney over a bloody diet pill.

That said some of these drugs probably should be removed