{"id":723901,"date":"2026-06-08T22:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T22:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/723901\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T22:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T22:35:10","slug":"england-captain-ben-stokes-under-investigation-over-nightclub-incident-following-first-test-against-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/723901\/","title":{"rendered":"England captain Ben Stokes under investigation over nightclub incident following first Test against New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) says men’s captain Ben Stokes and fast bowler Gus Atkinson are under investigation following a nightclub incident.<\/p>\n

The incident, the details of which have not been disclosed, occurred early on Monday morning, local time, after England’s 115-run win over New Zealand in the first Test at \u200cLord’s.<\/p>\n

“The ECB is currently investigating a breach of team protocols following the conclusion of the first men’s test against New Zealand,” the board said in a \u200cstatement.<\/p>\n

“Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson were present at a nightclub \u2060in the early hours of Monday morning when an \u200cincident took place.<\/p>\n

“We are currently seeking further information, and \u200can announcement regarding the squad for the second Test will be made in due course.”<\/p>\n

Brook admits to lying over nightclub incident<\/a><\/p>\n

England’s ODI and T20 captain Harry Brook issues a statement admitting he lied over the nightclub incident on his side’s tour of New Zealand last year, saying other teammates were present when he was hit by a bouncer.<\/p>\n

The episode marks another setback for England, who faced scrutiny earlier this year during its 4-1 Ashes series defeat amid \u200creports of heavy drinking during a mid-tour break in Noosa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Following the series, England batter and limited-overs captain Harry Brook also \u2060drew attention over a previous altercation \u200cwith a nightclub bouncer in \u200cNew Zealand<\/a>, for which he later issued a public apology.<\/p>\n

Brook was fined $60,000 and given a final warning after the incident in Wellington on the eve of a white-ball match, in which he was captain.<\/p>\n

Although the incident happened prior to the Ashes, the news only broke after the final Test against Australia at Sydney.<\/p>\n

ECB chief executive \u200cRichard Gould said in January that players would be subject to stricter measures, including a midnight curfew.<\/p>\n

The latest breach \u200cadds renewed pressure on head \u2060coach Brendon McCullum, who retained his role across all formats in March following an ECB review, despite lingering concerns about team culture.<\/p>\n

Stokes was previously involved in a 2017 incident outside \u2060a Bristol nightclub that led to an affray charge.<\/p>\n

He missed the 2017\/18 Ashes tour before \u200cbeing cleared \u200cthe following summer.<\/p>\n

The second Test of the three-match series against New Zealand begins on June 17 at The Oval.<\/p>\n

Wires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) says men’s captain Ben Stokes and fast bowler Gus Atkinson are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[13285,64,63,2129,740,3745,33511,24161,36396,4895,5315,2128,1736,63082,85,231],"class_list":["post-723901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ashes","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ben-stokes","tag-cricket","tag-ecb","tag-england-and-wales-cricket-board","tag-gus-atkinson","tag-harry-brook","tag-incident","tag-investigation","tag-lords","tag-new-zealand","tag-nightclub","tag-sports","tag-test"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}