ECB Chief Tom Harrison reacts to English daily's story of Ben Stokes' family tragedy

Ben Stokes, the English cricketer whose heroics helped England to win there first-ever World Cup and played a starring role in the recently concluded Ashes looks in no cool mood with a British newspaper that published his family tragedy which took place 30 years ago. Tom Harrison, the chief executive of England Cricket Board (ECB) was also not impressed by the front-page story in The Sun tabloid on Tuesday about Ben Stokes.

Stokes, England’s Test vice-captain was the leading scorer for his team in the Ashes 2019 with 441 runs in five Tests with 8 scalps to his name throughout the series. The 28-year-old was born in New Zealand but then moved to England as a boy. Recently, the English team all-rounder went on to criticize a British newspaper for publishing a story about his private life.

Ben Stokes and ECB not impressed with “The Sun”

Ben Stokes got annoyed after the “The Sun” published his family’s tragedy. According to the story, it was claimed that two of his mother’s other children from a previous relationship were murdered by their father, who then committed suicide, prior to the cricketer’s birth.

The all-rounder, in a lengthy statement on Twitter, referred to this type of activity as, “low and despicable” behaviour and called the article “immoral, heartless and contemptuous”.

He wrote on Twitter, “Today the Sun has seen fit to publish extremely painful, sensitive and personal details concerning events in the private lives of my family, going back more than 31 years. It is hard to find words that adequately describe such low and despicable behaviour, disguised as journalism. I cannot conceive of anything more immoral, heartless or contemptuous to the feelings and circumstances of my family.”

After such incident, the English cricket board joined their very own Ben Stokes, and England Cricket’s chief, Tom Harrison said, “We, like the wider sporting world, are disgusted and appalled at the actions taken in revealing the tragic events from Ben’s past,” as quoted by The Daily Star.

After facing criticism from England cricket board, and Ben Stokes, “The Sun” defended their activity by saying the story had received extensive media coverage in New Zealand at the time. A spokeswoman for the newspaper said: “The Sun has the utmost sympathy for Ben Stokes and his mother but it is only right to point out the story was told with the co-operation of a family member who supplied details, provided photographs and posed for pictures.”

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