Ben Stokes apologises to England teammates: backlash against Joe Root ‘hurt me’

<p>“Unfortunately a situation outside of their control took precedence over their big days, making their debut for England in Test cricket. It would be stupid and naive of me not to acknowledge and address that. It’s something you do have to do, as someone who has the responsibility of being a leader in a group.</p>

<p>“It’s all well everything being fine and dandy when it’s all going well, but you need to take responsibility for things as well. You need to be big enough and man enough to take that upon your shoulders, and look everyone who it has affected in the eye and apologise the way you need to apologise. That is something that I did.”</p>

<p>On Root, who returned to the captaincy at the Oval but suffered his 27th defeat, Stokes said: “It was hard to see the reaction that he got. That’s something that hurt me, because I’m very, very close with Joe.</p>

<p>“Seeing the effect that I had on Joe from public opinion was hard to see and read from my point of view. It shouldn’t take away the courage that Joe showed in taking that on that week. It would have been very, very easy for him to have said: ‘No, I don’t need this.’ But yet again he put the team first that he’s done on multiple occasions.”</p>

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<p>Stokes declined to go into specifics around breaking the curfew – whether players knew the precise details of the arrangements – but followed the head coach, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/brendon-mccullum" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Brendon McCullum</a>, by stressing their relationship remains strong.</p>

<p>As regards Atkinson, who similarly returns to the side after experiencing the first off-field issue of his Test career, Stokes said: “I spoke with Gus quite a lot over the period. I said to him: ‘It’s not my first rodeo, being in something like this, mate.’</p>

<p>“‘It is tough, hard to go through, but it will be all right. Take my advice: just let time do its thing.’ When you’re going through something like this for the first time, like Gus has done, you don’t really know what it’s going to be like. Even though I know what it is like, it still doesn’t make it any easier.</p>

<p>“He’s the same as me. He said: ‘The most important thing for me and you is getting back into the team and making sure the other team members know that me and you are totally focused on the team and the result this week.’”</p>

<p><em>This story will update</em></p>

Guardian Sport · Jun 24

Guardian Sport · Jun 24

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