PA
Stokes has opened up about his lingering animosity towards ECB officials
Lord Patel, the Yorkshire chairman, is understood to be the England & Wales Cricket Board official that Ben Stokes told to “f--- off” on the night of the World Cup final in July 2019.
Patel was, at the time, a board member at the ECB and it is claimed Stokes was angered because he thought Patel had taken a hard line against him over his street fight in Bristol.
Stokes reveals in his Amazon documentary, Phoenix from the Ashes, which is released on Friday, his lingering animosity towards some ECB officials over the Bristol affair, particularly those he felt did not stand by him and wanted him banned.
It was reported at the time in 2017 that Patel had been particularly upset by the footage of the Bristol fight and wanted to come down hard on Stokes. After Stokes was acquitted, Patel later denied he had taken a strong line on the issue.
Since then Patel has left the ECB and taken over as chair of Yorkshire in the wake of the Azeem Rafiq scandal.
“If this person did not know how I felt towards them then, they did know the night of the World Cup final,” Stokes says in the documentary.
The ECB did not have prior viewing of the documentary before its premiere in London on Monday. Normally the board has a veto and vets any works under the name of a centrally contracted player such as books and newspaper columns. But Stokes and the film makers were allowed to put together the documentary without it being seen by the ECB’s legal team.
The documentary lays bare Stokes’ relationship with ECB officials and how it fractured after the Bristol incident. “I was let down by a few people and a few of them wear a suit as well,” he says. “It is still there and always will be.”
Stokes also reveals that he is taking medication for anxiety due to ongoing mental-health issues as he continues to struggle with the death of his father.
The current England Test captain is now a passionate advocate on mental-health issues after taking a break from the game last year. In the film, he reveals it was the death of his father, Ged, his anger and guilt over a story in the Sun about the murder of his half-siblings before he was born and the pressures of playing international cricket and dealing with injury.
“I’ve never spoke about this stuff,” Stokes says. “I was catastrophising quite badly about stuff. I never thought I would be on medication to help me for that kind of stuff. I am not embarrassed or ashamed to say it because I needed the help at the time.
“But it’s not done just because I’m back playing. I still speak to the doc, not as regularly, and I’m still taking medication every day. It’s an ongoing process.”
