Yorkshire chair Lord Patel has denied reports he was the ECB ‘suit’ Ben Stokes told to “f*** off” after his heroics in the 2019 Cricket World Cup.
In his new Amazon Prime documentary ‘Ben Stokes: Phoenix From The Ashes’, Stokes said he felt so let down by some at the ECB over the way they handled his 2017 arrest after a fight with two men outside a nightclub in Bristol, that he would never forgive them. The all-rounder also revealed an exchange with an unnamed ECB official who approached him for a selfie following the World Cup final.
Speaking in the documentary, Stokes said “I was let down by a few people and a few of them wear a suit as well. It is still there and always will be.
“One person in particular asked me for a selfie. And it was someone who wears a suit and I turned round and told them to f*** off. If this person didn’t know how I felt about them. They did on the night of the World Cup final.
“The term ‘suit’ is just a generic term for an authority figure. Whoever I’m talking about, if they are watching, they will know who they are.”
It was later reported that Patel, who was on the ECB board at the time of Stokes’ arrest and the World Cup win, was the ‘suit’ Stokes had sworn at. However, Patel has categorically denied the allegation, telling the Cricketer : “I have only met Ben once in my life. I was in a lift at the Ageas Bowl before a match against India in 2018.
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“I wished him luck and he said ‘thanks very much’. I’ve no recollection of asking for a selfie with him – it’s not really the sort of thing I do – and certainly no memory of him swearing at me. If anything like that had happened, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep. I would have felt compelled to find out why he was so upset and resolve any misunderstanding.
“I joined the ECB board July 2015. So, when the Bristol incident took place, I was a relatively junior member of that board. The idea that I was making all the big decisions is absurd. Andrew Strauss, who was director of cricket at the time, made most of the cricket-related decisions, while Tom Harrison, the chief executive, spoke to Ben on an almost daily basis. We also had the likes of Colin Graves, Richard Thompson, Peter Wright and Andy Nash on the board. How on earth does anyone think I was going to overrule all of them?”
When asked about the claim that Patel was the ECB official he swore at, Stokes replied: “I’m not here to confirm or deny anything.”
