New Zealand Radio Jockeys play prank on Ben Stokes’ mom; get suspended

New Zealand Radio Jockeys play prank on Ben Stokes' mom; get suspended

Poor Ben Stokes has been on the receiving end ever since that deciding over on Sunday. All England had to do was defend 19 runs from the final over at Kolkata and had they done that they would have laid their hands on the ICC World T20 Trophy for the record second time. Stokes was trusted with the job but Bajan all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite with four consecutive sixes smashed those hopes. Read: Yuvraj Singh, Kevin Pietersen and others sympathise with Ben Stokes after his heartbreaking last over in World T20 final

Stokes was born in New Zealand and his father Gerard, a former rugby league international, moved to England, taking up a coaching role. While Stokes went on to make it big as a cricketer for England, his parents have moved back to Christchurch.

New Zealand’s Radio Hauraki shock jockeys Jeremy Wells and Matt Heath had been mocking Stokes’ role in England’s loss to the West Indies when his mother Deborah called the radio station to defend the way they were mocking her son. She was unaware that she was on air. She realised it soon and complained to station owner, who suspended the jockeys for a day.

A report from AFP quotes NZME group program director Mike McClung, “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. They’ve been suitably reprimanded, and are off-air tomorrow.”