Lord Kamlesh Patel refutes claims of Ben Stokes abuse saga


image-l78dm38vStokes claimed that he abused an ECB official on the night of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2019 final [PC-Twitter]

Yorkshire chairman Lord Kamlesh Patel has denied an allegation that Ben Stokes swore at him as "an attempt to discredit and undermine" him on the night of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2019 final at Lord's.

According to a few reports, Patel was the mystery 'ECB suit' who England Test captain Ben Stokes told to 'f*** off' after England's memorable World Cup final win against New Zealand in 2019.

In a documentary from Amazon Prime to be released on Friday, the England Test skipper revealed that he was so angry at the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for banning him from the 2017-18 Ashes tour over the infamous Bristol brawl that he swore at a senior executive who asked for a selfie at Lord's two years later.

At that time Patel was a board member at the ECB and it is claimed Stokes lashed out at him because he thought Patel had taken a hard line against him over the mishap that happened in Bristol.


No memory of him swearing at me: Patel

However, Patel has rejected suggestions he was abused by Ben Stokes during the 2019 World Cup.

"I have only met Ben once in my life. It was in a lift at the Ageas Bowl before a match against India in 2018. I wished him luck and he said 'thanks very much'. I've no recollection of asking for a selfie with him – it's not really the sort of thing I do – and certainly no memory of him swearing at me. If anything like that had happened, I wouldn't have been able to sleep. I would have felt compelled to find out why he was so upset and resolve any misunderstanding," Lord Kamlesh Patel told The Cricketer.  


Patel clarifies the doubts

Patel claims that he was a Junior member of the ECB in 2017, thus he didn't get in touch with Stokes over the Bristol street fight incident.

"I joined the ECB board July 2015. So, when the Bristol incident took place, I was a relatively junior member of that board. Tom Harrison, the chief executive, spoke to Ben on an almost daily basis. We also had the likes of Colin Graves, Richard Thompson, Peter Wright and Andy Nash on the board. How on earth does anyone think I was going to overrule all of them?


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