Ashes 2017: Michael Vaughan Recommends England To Change Mindset
Oct 4, 2017 at 5:39 PM
After an extremely successful home summer, the English cricketing fraternity was hit with an array of shocking revelations and scandals surrounding the late night pub brawl around Ben Stokes. The star all-rounder, along with limited overs opener Alex Hales, was involved in a physical altercation in a Bristol pub, where CCTV footage caught Stokes punching other members of the vicinity.
The episode had several repercussions in England as the two cricketers were suspended from the remaining games of the West Indies ODI series. Despite being stripped out of vice-captaincy, Stokes was named in the Ashes squad, while a police case still rages against all-rounder.
Former skipper Michael Vaughan was scathing about the entire fiasco and in his interaction with the press, blamed the ECB for its soft approach. Vaughan felt that the ECB wasn’t strict enough in disciplining its players, and advised the individuals to change their mindset.
“Yes, he’s 26 years of age, he should be more mature, he has made a massive mistake and I have no sympathy for Ben Stokes whatsoever,” Vaughan said.”But the management of the England team have to look at themselves in the mirror and say, ‘Hang on a minute, could we have done a bit more? Could we have been a bit stricter?’.
“I am not saying I want a headmaster and have a curfew and say, ‘You have got to be in your room by 11pm and you can never drink’, but there is a time and a place.”I just think now, with what has gone on this week, the culture of cricket has to change quickly,” Vaughan said.
Adding another episode about Stokes, Vaughan said:
“A story came out this week that Ben Stokes was out until 3am during a Test match in Manchester.”
“I knew that at the time, it was the talk of the media centre. The story was ripped out of the newspapers; it wasn’t allowed to go in; they fought tooth and nail to make sure that story didn’t reach the papers – bad PR, looks terrible on Ben Stokes.”If I knew it and the media knew it, how come anything wasn’t done to Ben Stokes in the England team?
“When we go on tour, we go to Australia, to India, to Bangladesh, there is a huge amount of security. There is no way in a million years any England player is allowed out, they’re allowed to go and party, but there is no way they are allowed out on their own at that time of night.”