It’s two months since England’s vice-captain Ben Stokes was arrested at 2.35 on a Monday morning after an altercation outside a Bristol nightclub.
Stokes spent the rest of the day in custody after a 27-year-old man was hospitalised with facial injuries.
The ECB stepped in and suspended Stokes until the police investigation was finalised, and he missed England’s final two ODIs against the West Indies.
Seeing there was video evidence of the fight, it’s fair to ask why the Avon and Somerset police have taken two months to make a decision – with Stokes a vital part of England’s Ashes campaign.
Stokes fractured his hand in the fight, but there’s been time enough to heal.
England has been in Australia for three weeks, with the first Test at the Gabba beginning on Thursday – but still no Stokes.
Reports there will be a police decision sometime this week is conjecture.
The last Test Stokes played was against the Windies at Lord’s in late September, where he was man of the match with 60 and a career-best 6-22, England winning by six wickets.
He’s been capped 39 times as a genuine all-rounder of the Ian Botham mould, only Stokes is a thumping left-handed batsman with a top score of 258 blazed against South Africa at Cape Town in January last year off only 198 deliveries with 30 fours and 11 sixes.
(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
There’s no-one in the England touring party capable of such a slaughter, with his 95 wickets at 33.93 a bonus.
One thing for sure, if Stokes does rejoin his teammates, he will be on thin ice.
He’s England’s loose cannon.
Stokes was arrested in 2011 for obstructing police, and in 2013 was sent home from the England Lions tour of Australia for breaking curfew with late-night drinking.
And he missed the World Twenty20 tournament in 2014 after breaking his hand punching his dressing room locker after a series of poor performances.
But Stokes has genuine all-round talent, and plenty of it.
He will make a huge difference to England’s Ashes campaign if his suspension is lifted.
Could that come this week?
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