Ben Stokes could still face cricket ban despite not guilty verdict

Ben Stokes has been cleared of affray by a jury at Crown Court but he now faces the cricketing consequences of his actions in a streetfight in Bristol while on England duty. 

The not guilty verdict has now left the England & Wales Cricket Board’s to launch a disciplinary process and sit in judgement on a player who has admitted to fighting in the street, albeit in self defence. 

Despite being found not guilty today at the end of a trial that lasted more than week, Stokes will still almost certainly be charged with bringing the game into disrepute. Alex Hales, his team-mate who was with him during the fight but not arrested by police, will also face a disrepute charge from the board. 

It now appears highly unlikely Stokes will face a lengthy ban that could have put him out of next year’s home World Cup and Ashes but he could miss the winter tours to Sri Lanka and West Indies.

He will also have his employment reviewed by the ECB, who will weigh up the reputational damage to the game caused by becoming involved in a streetfight at 2.30am and the ensuing publicity. 

If found guilty Stokes could have been sacked from his central contract by the ECB but that now appears unlikely.

Stokes’s immediate cricketing fate is in the hands of the ECB’s Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) chaired by Tim O’Gorman, a former Derbyshire batsman and trained solicitor. 

It has issued lifetime bans in the past for corruption and match fixing, although in Stokes’s case a suspension of anything from three months to one year is more likely. 

Recently it banned Derbyshire allrounder, Shiv Thakor, for six months after he was found guilty of exposing himself to two women. 

Last winter the ECB were careful in the language they used. It was stated Stokes was not suspended for the Ashes but merely not selected. It could mean the time spent missing the Ashes tour is not taken into account by the CDC.

The process will still take time. The CDC will decide when it sets a date and will give Stokes and Hales’s legal teams time to work on their defence. 

The ECB’s senior executives, including Tom Harrison, the chief executive, and chairman Colin Graves in consultation with the England management, will decide whether Stokes should be suspended from all cricket in the meantime. 

The CDC could reduce any ban for Stokes by including time spent out of the team last year when he was not selected for the Ashes tour. However, at the time the ECB was careful to point out he had not been formally suspended, partly to avoid compromising the criminal process but also for its own disciplinary hearing later down the line. 

Stokes is the highest paid cricketer in England thanks to his IPL deal of £1.4m with the Rajasthan Royals. He will be worried that any lengthy ban could put him out of the next IPL season, which starts in March. 

The Royals are a franchise determined to clean up their image having been suspended for two years for involvement in a fixing scandal and may be reluctant to take back a cricketer tainted by accusations of violence. 

It also has stronger links with the English game than any other IPL team. It’s joint owner, Manoj Badale, is British and has a good relationship with the ECB who have used him as a consultant in their recently launched south Asian strategy, which makes them more likely to respect any ECB ban. 

The ECB are unlikely to sack Stokes for fear of creating a TWenty20 freelancer for hire. But if he were to be sacked by the ECB he will have no shortage of potential employers with allrounders of his quality the most prized assets in Twenty20. He could end up earning more from those contracts than with the ECB. 

The Pakistan Super League, Bangladesh Premier League and the IPL offer lucrative sources of income and there are new Twenty20 leagues emerging constantly. 

However, the ECB does have one trick up its sleeve. Players require a No Objection Certificate (NoC) from their home board to play in franchise leagues overseas. One condition of an NoC is that franchise teams respect suspensions handed down by the ECB. 

The ECB could refuse Stokes an NoC which would then leave the game in uncharted territory. Franchises could sign him regardless and ignore the NoC which would then threaten relations between two member countries. 

It would not reach that level if Stokes remains under contract with the ECB but suspended. 

Stokes has been supported throughout by his loyal agent, Neil Fairbrother, the former England batsman, who has been a close advisor and helped make Stokes one of the richest cricketers in the world. 

He lost a £200,000-per-year deal with New Balance last year when for behavior that “does not match our brand culture and values" following his arrest and also the emergence of video footage of Stokes mimicking the disabled son of Katie Price. 

He has since replaced New Balance as his bat sponsor with Gunn & Moore. Stokes also has a deal with drinks maker Red Bull, who have stood by him so far.