Ben Stokes lashes out at ICC; feels governing body is lenient on Indian players

England all-rounder Ben Stokes demanded consistency from the ICC, as he felt that they were way too lenient on the Indian players in the dressing room, when it came to punishments.

England all-rounder Ben Stokes demanded consistency from the International Cricket Council (ICC), as he felt that they were way too lenient on the Indian players in the dressing room, when it came to punishments. Although Stokes did not pronounce any such names of the players, he was clearly unhappy with Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin being let go, following his manner of greeting James Anderson, with some strong words, on Day Five of the Fourth Test at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, which was eventually cut short by the on-field umpires, who just shrugged the incident off.

“I think that side of the game can be jumped on, and people get slapped with fines. If you’re going to do someone, you’ve got to do the next person, no matter who they are and who they play for. It’s part of the game, so I don’t see any reason why they should clamp down on it so quickly. If there’s one rule, it’s got to be the same rule for everyone. It can’t just be that certain people get away with certain things, and other people don’t get away with them. He looked like he was picking his nose when he did the quiet comment after I did it before him, but there’s been nothing else,” said Stokes, reports Mail Online.

FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: India vs England, 5th test at Chennai

“I’m constantly getting told to not swear next to the stump mike. You can’t say too much to a bloke who’s got 600 runs in the series. You’ve got to hold your hands up to him and appreciate the player he is. We’re a team that will want to go home 3-1, not 4-0,” he added.

“It’s not going to be a case of walking out there and letting them walk all over us. We want to win this game as much as we’ve wanted to win every other game so far. But losing isn’t the way you want to go about things. We’re disappointed to be going back to England after the way things have gone out here,” he concluded.

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