Delhi: England captain Ben Stokes has extremely angry at the International Cricket Council (ICC). In fact, recently, two points of the World Test Championship (WTC) were deducted from the England team due to the slow over rate in the Lord’s Test and 10% match fees of the players were also deducted.

England won this Test match against India by 22 runs, but Stokes looked quite angry with the ICC sentence over the over rate. He clearly said that the rules of over rate cannot be the same for every country.

What did Stokes say when the points were cut?

Stokes says that most of the over spinners in Asia are added, which makes the overs complete quickly. But in SENA countries i.e. South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia, fast bowlers bowl more, which takes time to complete the over.

Stokes said in a press conference before the Manchester Test, “The over rate is not something that I pay very much. But it does not even say that we deliberately slow over.

He further said, “The spinner has one over fast and it takes more time to complete the passage of pace. If there is a question of victory on the last day of the match, then we cannot just stop the spinner to improve the over rate. The audience does not want to watch such cricket either.”

Earlier, former England captain Michael Vaughan also criticized the ICC. He said that both India and England had an over rate slow, so both should have been punished equally.

After the Lord’s Test, the ICC said that England were able to put two overs less. Therefore, 10% of the fees of the players were deducted and two WTC points were also taken away. Match referee Richie Richardson sentenced this punishment.

Stokes cleaned

Stokes also said that Shoaib Bashir, the only chief spinner of the team, was injured in the first inning. This also made the over slow because on the last day we had to work with fast bowlers throughout the day.

Stokes clarified, “We played cricket for five consecutive days. He was our 15th day. The tired fast bowlers were working hard. We could not use the spin due to Shoaib Bashir’s injury. So the pace attack had to be used, causing over slow.”

He said, “There is not just talk of overseing on the field, there are many more things going on. Sometimes the game has to be slowed under the strategy.”