Botham unhappy with ECB decision to rest Stokes for England T20 at Durham

Sir Ian Botham has criticised the decision to leave Ben Stokes out of England’s Twenty20 match at his home ground.

Stokes will take a rest when England host West Indies in a one-off T20 international on September 16 at Chester-le-Street, home of the all-rounder’s county side Durham.

The England and Wales Cricket Board are giving Stokes and Moeen Ali a break ahead of the winter’s Ashes series in Australia, but their timing has been criticised by former England great Botham.

Botham, Durham’s chairman, believes it is the latest “kick in the teeth” for the county who were relegated from Division One of the Specsavers County Championship and docked 48 points for the current season in October last year after accepting a financial bailout from the ECB.

“Ben Stokes being stood down from the T20 international on his home ground has left me bitterly disappointed,”‘ Botham wrote in his Mirror column.

“The ECB has decided that a T20 match for the world’s most exciting player – and a local hero to boot – is a game too far so he won’t be able to show his skills to the people of the north-east.

“Ben has never played an international match in front of his home crowd at Chester-le-Street and I know thousands of spectators were hoping to see him in an England shirt live for the first time.

“And after the time that we’ve had here, with the club being docked 48 points as well as all the rest, you do start to wonder why there has been another kick in the teeth.

“The ECB have said, ‘It was a collective decision between the management and the player in that Ben needed a break and it is just unfortunate that it is a one-off T20 at Durham’. Well, I don’t believe for one minute that Ben wouldn’t want to play in front of his home crowd.

“He is an ECB centrally contracted player and they decide when he plays and when he doesn’t and that is fine. I am just bitterly disappointed for the public of the north-east.”