Prominent cricket journalist Scott Wilson’s recent tweet, which claimed that Ben Stokes gives more weight to the 20-ball franchise competition The Hundred than the multi-day premier domestic tournament the County Championship, clearly set off the red-ball captain and star English all-rounder.
Wilson’s crude comment about Ben Stokes being given the unique permission to forego playing county cricket in advance of England’s red-ball schedule.
as well as the freedom to “mess about in the circus” (a reference to The Hundred 2024), prompted this. Three days after suffering the injury, on August 14, Stokes replied to the tweet, criticising Wilson for his lack of investigation and fact-checking. He also mentioned that Stokes had played for Durham in three Championship games this season.
🏏 So Ben Stokes isn’t allowed to play any county cricket for #Durham during the summer, but he’s fine to mess about in the circus that is the Hundred, rupturing his hamstring and ruling him out for the rest of the summer. Utterly farcical….
— Scott Wilson (@Scottwilsonecho) August 13, 2024
Chief Sports Writer???
I played 3 Championship games for Durham this year https://t.co/ni40mB0i6m— Ben Stokes (@benstokes38) August 14, 2024
Interestingly, the three matches in May and June that Stokes mentioned in his tweet were against Lancashire, Somerset, and Worcestershire. During the three-game stretch, he was able to regain his bowling rhythm and claimed 18 wickets, including a five-wicket haul and a pair of four-fers. Stokes scored 2, 18, 0, 56, and 26 with the bat, in that order.
Following a superb two-match series against the West Indies, in which his all-around abilities proved to be a formidable force, Stokes had made plans to play four games for the Superchargers in The Hundred, before turning his attention to the upcoming three-match Test series against Sri Lanka.
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But after being ruled out of the entire series because of the severity of his injury, his aspirations of taking part in it all collapsed. According to reports, the England Cricket Board is working really hard to get Stokes fully healthy for the October tour to Pakistan.
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