Ashes megastar leaves cricket indefinitely

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England all-rounder Ben Stokes has withdrawn from the location Test bid against India starting adjacent week to "take an an indefinite interruption from each cricket".

The daze improvement came with large problems looming implicit the Ashes tour, and the willingness of England players to beryllium stuck successful a biosecurity bubble for its duration successful Australia.

Stokes wants "to prioritise his intelligence wellbeing and to remainder his near scale finger, which has not afloat healed since his instrumentality to competitory cricket earlier this month," the England and Wales Cricket Board said successful a connection connected Friday.

"The ECB afloat supports Ben's decision, and we volition proceed to assistance him during this play distant from the game."

England superstar Ben Stokes opens his shoulders successful his astonishing innings against West Indies. (Getty)

Stokes broke the digit successful the Indian Premier League successful April and returned location for an operation. It besides ruled him retired of England's trial bid against New Zealand successful June and the pursuing limited-overs bid against Sri Lanka.

But erstwhile the England squad had to isolate due to the fact that of a microorganism outbreak, Stokes accepted an exigency telephone to skipper England successful a one-day planetary bid against Pakistan this month. After winning the series, helium stepped backmost from England work again.

"Ben has shown tremendous courageousness to unfastened up astir his feelings and wellbeing," ECB managing manager of men's cricket Ashley Giles said successful a statement.

"Our superior absorption has ever been, and volition proceed to be, the intelligence wellness and payment of each of our people. The demands connected our athletes to hole and play elite athletics are relentless successful a emblematic environment, but the ongoing pandemic has acutely compounded this.

"Spending important amounts of clip distant from family, with minimal freedoms, is highly challenging. The cumulative effect of operating astir continuously successful these environments implicit the past 16 months has had a large interaction connected everyone's wellbeing."

"Ben volition beryllium fixed arsenic agelong arsenic helium needs."

Stokes volition beryllium replaced successful the squad by Somerset's Craig Overton.

Ben Stokes celebrates an England Test win. (Getty)

ENGLAND'S OMINOUS ASHES STATEMENT

The England and Wales Cricket Board is determined to find a mode to guarantee England's champion players are disposable for the Ashes successful Australia successful December, with superior fears that determination volition beryllium absentees.

In a associated connection with the Professional Cricketers' Association connected Friday, the governing bodies reiterated their tendency for the five-test bid to beryllium played astatine the highest imaginable standard. Meetings with Cricket Australia are acceptable to hap successful the coming weeks.

The Australian authorities has constricted the fig of overseas arrivals during the pandemic, with thousands of its citizens incapable to instrumentality and COVID-19 cases surging successful the country's largest cities amid a dilatory rollout of the vaccination programme.

England's Test squad, and successful peculiar the players who diagnostic successful each formats, could spell up to 4 months without seeing household owed to the Ashes taking spot 3 weeks aft the Twenty20 World Cup successful the United Arab Emirates and Oman finishes successful November.

England skipper Joe Root. (PA/AAP)

"This week, respective meetings person been held betwixt the England men's players, ECB and Team England Player Partnership to sermon provisional plans for the circuit of Australia aboriginal successful the year," the associated connection said.

"All parties are collaborating and volition proceed to enactment unneurotic to recognize protocols astir bubble environments, household proviso and quarantine rules that volition beryllium successful spot for the circuit during the existent COVID-19 pandemic.

"With subordinate and management's payment paramount, the ECB volition sermon readying and operational requirements with Cricket Australia successful the coming weeks and however they question to instrumentality their policies successful concern with authorities and national governments.

"All stakeholders are committed to putting subordinate and unit payment arsenic the main precedence and uncovering the close solutions that alteration the England squad to vie with the champion players and astatine the highest imaginable modular that the Ashes bid deserves."

Former Ashes winning-captain Michael Vaughan said past week helium would beryllium amazed if England was astatine afloat spot unless question exemption was fixed for the families of the touring party.

A imaginable alternate would beryllium to basal the families successful New Zealand, wherever a question corridor into Australia was established, though this period that was suspended.

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