Ian Botham has criticized dropped England captain Ben Stokes for breaking a workforce curfew, with the cricket nice saying he doesn’t see “the way you justify what occurred”.
Each all-rounder Stokes and paceman Gus Atkinson have been made unavailable for the continuing second Take a look at in opposition to New Zealand on the Oval pending an investigation into an incident in a London bar.
Stokes, 35, and Atkinson, 28, broke the England workforce’s midnight curfew whereas celebrating victory within the first Take a look at at Lord’s a fortnight in the past, with a member of the workforce’s safety employees reportedly struck by a Saracens rugby participant.
The England duo are being investigated by each the England and Wales Cricket Board and the impartial Cricket Regulator.
“Some folks simply do not be taught, do they? It is so simple as that,” Botham advised the Follow Cricket podcast in feedback reported by the BBC.
Botham, president of Stokes’ county aspect Durham, added: “We as a membership when he (Stokes) had the issues in Bristol (in 2017), we stood by him.”
He added: “I do not see how one can justify what occurred after the sport (at Lord’s), particularly if you have been most likely very a lot in command of when the curfew is, midnight.”
Stokes has been named in Durham’s 15-man squad for his or her County Championship fixture in opposition to Northamptonshire, which begins on Friday, however his England future stays unsure.
Botham, one of many excellent all-rounders of his technology, was famend as a cricketer who labored laborious on the sphere and loved himself off it too.
The 70-year-old stated gamers of his period “used to like going out for a drink” however stated they “weren’t fairly so apparent” in comparison with present-day cricketers.
England confronted allegations of a ingesting tradition throughout a woeful 4-1 sequence loss in Australia throughout the 2025/26 Ashes.
Earlier than the Ashes, white-ball captain Harry Brook was punched by a nightclub bouncer in Wellington forward of a one-day worldwide in opposition to New Zealand.
Because of this, England imposed a midnight curfew on all gamers and employees.
Former England captain Botham, who scored 5,200 runs and took 383 wickets in 102 Checks, stated he wouldn’t be shocked if Stokes have been to stop cricket fully ought to he not be skipper.
“It would not shock me if Ben was to lose the (England) captaincy, he most likely would possibly stroll away from the sport,” Botham stated. “However I simply do not know.”
