It sounds like a story out of lower grade park cricket.
Thirty-five-year-old captain goes out to nightclub to celebrate win but becomes involved in physical altercation.
Except that Ben Stokes, 35, is captain of the England Test team – a role he has held for more than four years.
Stokes and team-mate Gus Atkinson were suspended for the second Test against New Zealand after breaking a 12am team curfew after winning the first Test in London.
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The England duo were reportedly involved in an altercation with a Saracens rugby player but have been cleared of any wrongdoing in that instance.
Both Stokes and Atkinson have been restored to the team for the third Test in Trentbridge, with the former re-assuming his role as captain.
In a press conference overnight, Stokes was hammered with questions by the English press about the incident, but the veteran stated he was ‘only focusing on this week’, before eventually relenting and insisting he was ‘man enough’ to apologise to his England team-mates.
“I hope you (the media) respect in terms of this whole week, I’m (only) focusing on this week,” Stokes stated.
However when asked if he apologised, Stokes pointedly said: “Of course. That was one of the first things I had to do as captain.
“It would be stupid and naive of me not to acknowledge and address that. It’s something you do have to do, as someone who has responsibility of being a leader in a group.
“It’s all fine, everything being fine and dandy, when it’s going well but you need to take responsibility for things as well.
“You need to be big enough and man enough to be able to take that upon your shoulders, look everyone in the eye who it’s affected and apologise how you need to apologise. That’s something I did.”
It remains to be seen if Stokes apologising to his team-mates for breaking rules means he retains the England captaincy for Pakistan’s tour starting in August.