Ben Stokes is preparing to make a decision on his future as England captain, as the fallout continues from a nightclub confrontation involving team-mate Gus Atkinson and a Saracens rugby player.
The England and Wales Cricket Board, the independent Cricket Regulator and the Gallagher Prem club are all investigating events which took place in the early hours of Monday morning at a Chelsea nightspot after celebrations following a Test win over New Zealand at Lord’s.
There is a possibility that the breach of team protocols could see Stokes stripped of the captaincy, a role he has held since the summer of 2022, but the Press Association understands the ball is currently in his court.
The 35-year-old is thought to be considering stepping down as skipper, and it is not impossible that he could even go further and retire from the international arena.
Senior figures at the ECB are furious at the possible reputational damage, coming after chaotic winter that was characterised by criticisms of the team’s professionalism and drinking habits, but have given Stokes time to ponder his position.
With training for next week’s second Test at the Kia Oval due to start on Sunday, and a squad to gather before that, that window is closing fast.
PA understands that Totoa Auvaa, a 6ft 5in and 19stones 8lbs former Samoa A and Samoa Under-20 captain, is the Saracens player implicated.
Auvaa, 21, is a back-five forward who joined Saracens’ senior academy ahead of the current season and is viewed as a promising prospect.
A security guard who was with the England pair, but who is understood not to be a member of ECB staff, was reportedly injured in the incident.
The damaging episode began with a contingent of England cricketers meeting Saracens squad members at the White Horse pub in Fulham on Sunday evening, with the latter group marking the end of their season.
According to a bartender, who asked not to be named, a group of around 20 players, including Stokes and England rugby internationals Maro Itoje and Ben Earl, were served in the establishment between 9pm and 11pm.
The Rugby Football Union and Saracens have declined to comment, and there is no suggestion that either Itoje or Earl were involved in what took place later on.
The employee said Stokes ordered a couple of rum and Cokes and the group was engaging in “huge rounds”. He described the atmosphere between the group as “super nice”, adding: “I assumed they all knew each other in the way that they were talking.”
He said the group left when the White Horse closed at 11pm and some looked like they were going to “kick on”.
PA understands earlier in the evening a lot of the Saracens rugby players were seen drinking at the Crabtree pub in Fulham. They were not seen with any of the England cricketers at that stage, a local witness has said.
Senior figures at the ECB will be furious there are once again question marks over the conduct and culture of the men’s team.
There were multiple reports of late-night drinking sessions on their doomed Ashes campaign over the winter, including a boozy trip to the beach resort of Noosa between the second and third Tests.
The subsequent revelation that white-ball captain Harry Brook had been involved in a scuffle with a nightclub bouncer in Wellington on the preceding tour of New Zealand was another damaging affair that saw him fined and issued with a final warning.
Remarkably, as Stokes’ vice-captain, Brook could now be asked to lead the side in his absence. Joe Root, who did the job for five years before Stokes took over and is the squad’s senior figure, could be another option.
In 2017, Stokes was involved in an incident outside a Bristol nightclub that resulted in him being charged with affray. He subsequently missed the Ashes tour of 2017-18 before he was cleared of the charge the following summer.
Former England captain David Gower earlier told BBC Radio 5 Live he feared Stokes’ reign was already all but done.
“He’s in severe doubt. One of the responsibilities as a captain is to set the right tone – if you’re leading, you have to set the right example,” Gower said.
“He has become – or, I probably have to use the past tense now, had become – a very important figure as a leader of that team. I don’t know what he’s thinking at the moment… regret could be the least of it. He will be mortified, I’m sure, to have put himself in that position in the early hours.”
Stokes spoke of giving up alcohol during recovery from injury last year and even invested in a zero per cent brand of spirits.
But, in the immediate aftermath of the 115-run over New Zealand at the home of cricket, he told a press conference: “I won’t be really happy until I get to share a beer with the boys.”
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