Alastair Cook frustrated with sanctions imposed on Ben Stokes

Having drawn the series, it is certainly clear that England skipper Alastair Cook is frustrated. Of course, he has every reason to be frustrated as history will state that he was the first England skipper to lose a match against Bangladesh while the fact that Ben Stokes was back to his antics in the Test series as well. Stokes was pulled-up in the ODI series following some heated words with Tamim Iqbal.

Following the conclusion of the second Test at Dhaka, Ben Stokes was fined 15 percent of his match fee following a heated exchange of words yet again this time around with Sabbir Rahman. The on-field umpires – Kumar Dharmasena and S Ravi – had also advised England captain Cook of Stokes’ actions but, in the words of the ICC media release, “the player didn’t comply with the instructions”.

The incident occurred when Sabbir was batting against Ben Stokes. While Sabbir was managing to ward off the cutters from Stokes, it was clear that Stokes was involving himself to a bit of a sledge here and there. Each time Stokes beat Sabbir’s outside-edge, he gave the Bangladesh batsman a piece of his mind. As a result, Stokes was found to have violated Article 2.1.1 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to “conduct that is contrary to the spirit of the game”.

In addition, a demerit point has been added to Stokes’ disciplinary record. Should he be on the receiving end of a few more, he would be inadvertently suspended. Alastair Cook shared his thoughts on the same.

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“I do find it a little bit frustrating,” Cook said. “Both Sabbir and Stokesy are very competitive cricketers. To me, people love it. That’s what people watch.

“Sometimes I believe the umpires can get involved too quickly, and then it blows up even more. When umpires get involved it can drag it out and brings more theater to it than you need.”