After the heroics of Carlos Brathwaite and his team in the World T20 final, countries all around the world have been talking about the game and the two players involved in the final over.
With 19 needed from the final 6 deliveries, Ben Stokes was given the ball and was humiliated as he was hit for 4 consecutive sixers giving West Indies one of the most memorable T20 victories.
This humiliation for the England all-rounder did not stop with the game as people from all over the world were ready to pull him down.
And in a shocking incident in New Zealand, the country in which Stokes was born and brought up, a radio station put the player’s mother on air without her consent when she called the station to complaint against his son being bagged on-air for the loss against West Indies.
Deborah Stokes was assured by Jeremy Wells and Matt Heath, hosts from Radio station Hauraki that she was off air but the telephone conversation in which the mother tried to defend her child was aired live on their radio station.
“They have never met (Ben Stokes), they don’t know him,” Mrs Stokes said. “And maybe if they had tempered the inappropriate remarks and name calling with some quotes of some supportive tweets he’s received from some very well-known cricketers and just your ordinary Joe Bloggs cricket supporters, maybe…,” Deborah said during that call.
Even as she was talking, Heath, one of the hosts said that he was writing down a complaint in order to alert the hosts of the show.
Stokes’ mother went on to say that it was embarrassing for her and other relatives who live in the country to listen to her son being thrashed on Radio and said that she cannot take it anymore.
I don’t know whether they realize he was actually born and bred in New Zealand,” Mrs. Stokes went on. “And quite frankly has family all over the country.
“And for those who listen to your station, for them to sit and listen to their cousin and their grandson being bagged like that is absolutely unconscionable and I’m his mother and I’m totally brassed off.”
Deborah herself was a prominent cricketer for New Zealand in her prime and went on to defend his son in the telephonic conversation that she did not know was being broadcasted.
And after she got to know that her conversation was broadcasted, she called back to the Radio station to complain to the spokesperson of the company.
A spokesperson for the New Zealand media and entertainment also got involved in the matter and took steps to suspend the two hosts of the show who crossed the line.
“Matt and Jeremy are famous for identifying where the line is and then ignoring it, however putting Ben’s mum to air without her knowledge, albeit defending her son, was obviously well over that line,” NZME Group Program Director Mike McClung said in a statement to news.com.au.
“They’ve been suitably reprimanded, and are off-air tomorrow,” he added.
Ben Stokes’ over will surely be remembered for a long time to come but the all-rounder will only become better the more he plays and will surely leave those 4 balls behind him going into his next adventure with the England team.