BEN Stokes is all set to play for Canterbury Kings in New Zealand’s Ford Trophy while his England team-mates are contesting the second Ashes Test in Adelaide this weekend.
The all-rounder surprised the cricketing world again when he took an unannounced flight on Monday night from Heathrow to his native Christchurch, amid initial reports he was simply visiting his extended family.
Stokes is still waiting to hear if he will be charged with causing actual bodily harm after being arrested during a late-night fracas in Bristol in September, but it has been learned he was granted a no objection certificate four days ago by the England and Wales Cricket Board to play domestic cricket anywhere he chooses.
Whether England management was aware then of the 26-year-old match-winner’s plans to sign for Christchurch-based Canterbury remains unclear, however.
Stokes was originally picked in England’s Ashes squad but then left at home, unavailable for international selection pending first the decision of Avon & Somerset Police whether to charge him and then the deliberations of a Cricket Discipline Commission under the auspices of the ECB.
So far, he has missed three tour matches and a first Test defeat by 10 wickets – during which the consequences of his absence were plain to see.
England may yet be able to fast-track him back into their plans here, if there were to be no criminal charge, but if so they will have to tread a fine line between expediency and propriety.
The ECB is still unaware of any impending police decision, but once there is one has a contingency in place to convene a board meeting within 48 hours.
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