Stokes ‘frustrated and disappointed’– but will curfew saga free him again?

Ben Stokes is "frustrated and disappointed" about how his and Gus Atkinson's curfew saga has unfolded, but the England Test captain said he was feeling more liberated, following a "chaotic" few weeks.

Stokes and Atkinson were dropped from England's second Test against New Zealand at The Kia Oval, which England lost by 253 runs, after an incident took place at a nightclub in west London in the early hours of June 8 while members of the England squad were celebrating their 115-run victory at Lord's in the series opener.

The England Test cricketers were later cleared of any wrongdoing following investigations conducted by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the Independent Cricket Regulator, after an altercation involving a Saracens rugby player took place at the Rex Rooms club in Chelsea.

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​​​​​In an exclusive interview with former England Test captain and Sky Sports analyst Michael Atherton, Stokes was asked if he felt the ECB had given him "a suitable amount of backing" during the process.

"I guess it's always one of those things where when you don't have to make a decision, you feel like you could make the best decision," Stokes said on The Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.

"It's always hard being involved in something like that. Could I say I was a little bit frustrated and disappointed with how the whole thing has played out? Yeah.

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"But I'm back here as captain of England. I'm back here playing this week. I'm back here doing what I want to be doing.

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"Everything's happened, I can't change what has happened, but what I can do is affect what we do going forward. How I conduct myself from here onwards is the only thing that I can control.

"I can't control or change what happened in the past."

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Midnight curfews were implemented for the England Test squad in the wake of the team's disastrous winter Ashes campaign, where reports emerged that some players had been excessively drinking during a mid-series break to Noosa.

When asked if the full details of the curfews had been properly laid out to the England players said: "If you look at the investigations that happened, both internally and with the regulator, nothing was brought against me and Gus in terms of that."

Stokes said during a press conference on Wednesday that it was tough to watch stand-in captain Joe Root and the England team receive criticism following their disappointing loss at The Oval.

Stokes apologised to his team-mates following the nightclub incident, but told Atherton on Wednesday that he is committed to regaining the trust of his team-mates and England fans.

"As I've just said there, you do take ownership of things, and I feel like I've done that," Stokes said. "I feel like I've done that to the people who needed to hear it the most, which, to me at this point in time, was my team-mates.

"It would be understandable if there was a little bit of trust lost, and it's up to me to get that trust back if there is any lost.

"Being open-minded to all of that and the repercussions of how some things can affect other people is something that I've got to take on my shoulders and understand. I feel like I've done that as much as I possibly could so far.

"Now, what do I need to do as captain? Look forward. We've got a massive week coming up here, so I have to get everyone's mind onto this game because at the end of the day, it's 1-1, we've got one game left, and we need to win the series. I feel like I've done a pretty good job of what I needed to do."

What should England do about the curfews?

Michael Atherton said to the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast:

"I just think they're ridiculous for a sporting team. I think you treat people like grown-ups, and if those grown-ups mess up, you come down hard, and that's one of the issues.

"One thing I didn't ask him about was the double standards of what happened with Harry Brook in the winter, who went out before the game and hasn't missed a game. They're chasing their tail a little bit from what happened in the winter."

Stokes feeling 'freer' than before after curfew saga

The England Test captain, 35, also explained that the captaincy has taken its toll at times, but added he was feeling more liberated following the conclusion of the investigation.

"If I were to sit here and say I've done this job for four years and it's been no stress, it's been nothing that's come of it, you know that I'll be lying.

"It's a job that requires resilience. It's a job that requires time. It's a job that requires so much effort.

"You're never really able to switch off from it. You're always on. Over the last six months, I guess I could look back on whether I have thrown myself a bit too much into it? Have I given myself enough slack after Australia?

"Maybe I was a little bit too hard on myself? Over the last couple of weeks, I'll be truthful: It could have almost all been taken away from you again, so just relax a bit and go out there and enjoy it.

Atherton: Ben Stokes will still have the dressing room

Asked during the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast whether he feels Stokes will still have the backing of his team-mates, Atherton said:

"I think so. He's an inspirational cricketer. He talked about possibly a loss of trust and having to regain it. He also talked about being very gratified by the public reaction.

"I don't know whether that's a public reaction on Twitter or socials or whatever, but he senses that people are in his corner. He's likely to get a great reception here at Trent Bridge. It's a ground where he's enjoyed some success, and it's a great cricket ground in itself.

"He's going to get a hot welcome here, a nice welcome. That may buoy him and the team."

"This is something that I've loved for 15, 20 years… 15 years for England. I don't know how long I've been a professional cricketer now. For a very long time.

"So I am able to put things into perspective a little bit because it has been a tough two weeks. But somehow, trying to find the positive has sort of allowed me to feel a little freer than I probably have done in times before this.

"It's a little bit weird, I guess, hearing me saying I found a positive out of it."

'McCullum, Key and I aren't resting on our laurels'

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Questions have begun to mount over whether England's leadership group of Rob Key, Brendon McCullum and Stokes are the right people to lead England forward.

But Stokes insists that the trio are not resting on their laurels, even if things haven't gone their way in the past two years.

"Me, Keysy [Key] and Baz [McCullum] have done and achieved some pretty special things. But we're not hiding away from the fact that over the last 18 months, things have started to go in a direction that we don't want them to and we know that.

"We appreciate that. For us, we're just desperately trying to get things back to how they were in terms of results and the success that we were having in the first couple of years.

"But it's hard to do. It's hard to get this success consistently when you're playing against other teams that are also trying to be successful against you. It's not an easy thing to just go out there and be win, win, win, win.

"Again, we've done some pretty good things over the last four years, but we're not resting on our laurels because we know that we can be doing a lot better than what we currently have been doing."

Atherton: Curfew saga will free Stokes

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Atherton believes Stokes was not frustrated with any individual in particular, but rather with the process that has unfolded over the past two weeks.

Delivering his analysis on Stokes' comments during the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast, Atherton pinpointed the England captain's comments that he had been unable to stop thinking about the job, adding that it may have taken a toll on him.

However, he added there may be a silver lining to the curfew saga.

"If you're taking one positive from all this, I got the sense that there was a man who had gone away for two weeks while the team was playing," Atherton said. "He's had a chance to think about those things, and maybe try and get back to more of the relaxed persona that we saw, maybe two or three years ago.

"Maybe the way that he batted at Durham, which seemed to be with a bit more freedom, and a bit more of the old assertive Ben Stokes, maybe those two things are connected, that he's felt he's been a bit too tight, and a bit too pressurised, and he's going to try and free himself up this week.

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"Of course, it's not that easy to do. He's 35, and he hasn't scored runs for quite some time. This is a top-class New Zealand attack.

"And when the game has got you in its grip, it can have you in its grip. But I sense that that's what he's going to try to do. With his batting, he said something along the lines of, I was trying to find something that didn't need finding."

Having been in Stokes' shoes previously, Atherton empathised with the demands that being an England captain brings.

"When he talked about his batting, he said: 'I'm not very good with time on my hands.' And of course, he had that bad facial injury at the start of the year. He hasn't played much first-class cricket for a number of reasons; injury, the schedules and all kinds of things.

"But he's a tinkerer, and he's an overthinker when he's not on the field. And the fact that he's not had that much cricket outside the Test matches, and he's had that injury, has meant that he's been overthinking things.

"When he went back to Durham, he said he just didn't think about very much. He tried to see the ball and hit the ball. Maybe he'll try to get back to that again. But again, he has admitted it's not quite so straightforward.

"You just can't switch on a tap, particularly at 35 against a good attack."

England vs New Zealand results and schedule

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First Test (Lord's) - England won by 115 runs

Second Test (The Kia Oval) - New Zealand won by 253 runs

Third Test (Trent Bridge) - June 25-29 (11am)

Watch the third Test between England and New Zealand, at Trent Bridge, live from 10am on Thursday (11am first ball) on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event. Get instant access with NOW.