The Telegraph UK<\/a>, Stokes\u2019 legal team forensically picked apart England\u2019s curfew regulations, with the ECB recognising those rules were not clearly codified.<\/p>\nAccording to the report, the ECB expected Stokes to voluntarily stand down following the ordeal before realising the Durham all-rounder had the support of fans and teammates.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Stokes reportedly posted and then quickly deleted an article headlined \u2018Ben Stokes and the ECB can never trust each other again\u2019 on social media.<\/p>\n
Stokes was also bemused by McCullum questioning his mental health following the incident, the report claims.<\/p>\n
England captain Ben Stokes hugs coach Brendon McCullum. Photo by Gareth Copley\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
England slumped to a heavy second Test defeat in the absence of their skipper and one of their key fast bowlers.<\/p>\n
But Stokes and Atkinson are back in the squad for the third Test, which starts in Nottingham on Thursday, and trained with their teammates at Trent Bridge on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
And McCullum claimed he is still on good terms with Stokes after a lengthy chat prior to England\u2019s net session. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had a good catch-up with him this morning, an hour and a bit talking, and he was outstanding,\u201d he told reporters on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe looks ready to go, he\u2019s enthusiastic about the week and, obviously from our point of view, it\u2019s nice to have the band back together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if recent events had made their relationship more tense, McCullum said: \u201cNot at all. We talked about that this morning. I said, \u2018Do you know where this has come from, the conversations around our relationship over the last six months?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018No, I have no idea\u2019. I said to him, \u2018As far I\u2019m concerned, I consider you a good friend\u2019. <\/p>\n
\u201cObviously we\u2019ve been through a lot together as a working pair in leadership positions here in English cricket.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the end, we both want what\u2019s right and what is the best for English cricket and we\u2019re crystal clear on the direction we want this team to take.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stokes and Atkinson are back in the England line-up for the third Test as the selectors made four changes. <\/p>\n
Jamie Smith is back following the birth of his second child and replaces James Rew at wicketkeeper.<\/p>\n
Spinner Shoaib Bashir, who did not bowl a single over in his previous appearance at Lord\u2019s, is picked with extreme heat this week expected to favour slow bowlers. <\/p>\n
Atkinson, Josh Tongue and Jofra Archer are the fast bowlers, leaving Ollie Robinson on the sidelines.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old took career-best figures of 7-77 on a bowler-friendly pitch at Lord\u2019s in his first Test in more than two years.<\/p>\n
But he withdrew from the second Test due to a knee injury and has been unable to reclaim his place<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England coach Brendon McCullum has denied his relationship with Ben Stokes was damaged by the nightclub controversy that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-756097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756097","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=756097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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