New Balance Ends Association With Ben Stokes
Oct 12, 2017 at 2:19 PM
Sports apparel company, New Balance has ended its association with England all-rounder Ben Stokes due to the incident that took place last month outside of a pub in Bristol where he assaulted two men.
Stokes was arrested shortly after the incident and was later released but is still under investigation on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm. Despite the incident, he was initially named in the squad for the Ashes, but the ECB has now suspended him until further notice.
The cricket board has also confirmed that the 26-year old will not travel with the squad to Australia when Joe Root & Co. leave for the Ashes on October 28. However, Stokes could join the team at a later date after the outcome of the ongoing investigation comes out/
“New Balance does not condone behaviour by our global athletes that does not match our brand culture and values, and therefore we have ended our relationship with Ben Stokes, effective October 11, 2017. We will not provide further comment,” New Balance, who are also kit sponsors of all the England teams, confirmed their decision through a press release on Wednesday (October 11).
The news, meanwhile, came shortly after Stokes apologised publicly for mocking the disabled son of British celebrity Katie Price.
“Earlier this year I was shown a clip of Harvey being asked on “Loose Women” how he responds to internet trolls,” the England star said in a statement. “I loved Harvey’s directness with his response – he said what most of us think but perhaps aren’t brave enough to say, let alone on live TV.
https://twitter.com/benstokes38/status/918153173214392321
“I foolishly attempted to copy the clip after I saw it a few times. I should never have done this and I am so sorry. It was absolutely not my intention to offend Harvey, Katie or anybody else. I have written to both Harvey and Katie to say sorry and prior to this offered to meet in person at the end of last month with a view to also getting behind their petition about online bullying. I do hope I can put this right,” he added.