Apologies everyone......in two posts in this thread I accidentally wrote Voice of the Valleyvont when I meant to write Into the Valleyvont. I've just edited the two posts......this may well have confused the hell out of some of you! Doh!
Check out the video of England vice captain Ben Stokes landing 15 punches outside a nightclub at the weekend. The single worst act of violence since that 13 year old girl threw a punch at Reams. Ben Stokes’ victim also ended up flat on his back.
If on CCTV a prison sentence should be in order. I bet it does not happen with him being in the public eye. Can I try it on you to see if I get away with it?!
There is a problem recruiting and keeping umpires at lower level cricket because of bad behaviour by the players. The phrase "It's not cricket, old boy" has a different meaning now. Colin Cowdrey must be spinning in his grave.
The ICC has announced a new rule change today - abusing or striking [WTF?] an umpire will result in a red card and a ban. Dear oh dear. P.S: I can't see how Stokes can tour after that.
Just saw the Hales footage - the guy is a *****. Punched someone who had their hands down. Sad as he's a fantastic cricketer.
Just been listening to Alan Lamb's take on it. Apparently Stokes needs a bodyguard, because he's a fiery character, and there's always going to be people out there who are going to wind him up. I don't recall Fiery Fred Truman ever needing a bodyguard.
Come on guys let's wait and see what led up to all this before we make too many assumptions. Incidentally, someone called him a coward for hitting a bloke with his hands down......oh come on chaps. It's a street fight where more or less anything goes, there's no Queensbury rules in operation, what is someone supposed to do, wait for the bloke to take a stance, especially when he was (as it would seem), taking them all on into the bargain. Having said all that, he may be totally to blame, let's wait and see what gives.There's always two sides to every story, even though one has to admit the video footage, as it stands, doesn't look too good for him.
Its cowardly to punch someone with their hands down. If a guy is walking away with hands down, let them do that. Stokes wasn't swinging in the original melee when it looked like it was going to kick off. The other guy is stupid for putting his hands down though. Piers Morgan is saying he was doing it to defend a couple of homosexual guys, sounds like its a cooked up story, but as you say we have to wait for the outcome.
Hitting somebody who isn't defending themselves is never good. I always remember from schooldays that a favourite tactic of bullies was to hit someone really hard without any warning, taking them completely by surprise. Shocking cowardice. But is it possible something was said that we don't know about - something totally out of order and extremely provocative? I don't know, I haven't seen the video. But as Mr Sitter suggests there may be two sides to this sorry story. Almost certainly there is more than any of us knows right now.
