The England cricket captain, Ben Stokes, was involved in an altercation at a night club in the early hours of Monday morning. Also present was his team mate, Gus Atkinson. The players were celebrating England’s victory over New Zealand in the first Test match of the summer. Full details of what exactly took place are yet to emerge but since they were clearly in breach of the team’s new midnight curfew, both players seem likely to miss the second match of the series which starts at the Oval on Wednesday next week.

The omission of Stokes and Atkinson for the second Test match should be viewed not as a crisis, but as a catalyst

The omission of Stokes and Atkinson for the second Test match should be viewed not as a crisis, but as a catalyst

The midnight curfew and a new code of conduct were put in place following a number of unfortunate off-field incidents during last winter’s disastrous tours of New Zealand and Australia. In the Test matches ‘down under’, England were comprehensively outplayed by a weakened Australian team, losing the series 4-1. Although it was entirely predictable , the architects of that Ashes........

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