Post by Bazpan on Apr 29, 2019 23:33:38 GMT
"We would never have dropped Alex from the squad if we'd been able to keep his drug use secret", Ashley Giles should have said. He might as well have taken the points for candour, seeing as how we're not stupid. One thing he did say was "We have thought long and hard about this decision", but perhaps it would have been more accurate to say that they thought about it briefly and impulsively, once the cat was out the bag.
Alex Hales won't be many people's idea of a hard luck story this week, but he might reasonably feel that he's not getting the same treatment as the man he was out late with that night in Bristol. Of course Ben Stokes is more highly valued by the ECB, and expediency usually trumps morality with these people. Giles justifies the decision to jettison Hales by the "need to consider what is in the best interests of the team, to ensure they are free from any distractions".
You want distractions? What about the last Ashes tour with its continuing backdrop of the ECB's disciplinary panel on 48-hour standby, breathlessly waiting to approve Stokes's selection if only the police and the CPS would give them a way out? Say they'd been able to get Stokes into the Test side - d'you think the incident outside the Mbargo nightclub might have been raised by the Australian team, supporters and media ... to the point where it might have become a distraction? (Seems possible, but clearly not a concern). Or the following summer, when Stokes was in the Test side the week before and the week after his affray trial? (Distraction schmistraction).
The World Cup is still a little while away, but looking at the coverage of, and reaction to, the dropping of Alex Hales, I'm not sure how successful the ECB's distraction-avoidance measures will end up being. They might have been better off leaving him in the squad and just letting his suspensions play out.
Alex Hales won't be many people's idea of a hard luck story this week, but he might reasonably feel that he's not getting the same treatment as the man he was out late with that night in Bristol. Of course Ben Stokes is more highly valued by the ECB, and expediency usually trumps morality with these people. Giles justifies the decision to jettison Hales by the "need to consider what is in the best interests of the team, to ensure they are free from any distractions".
You want distractions? What about the last Ashes tour with its continuing backdrop of the ECB's disciplinary panel on 48-hour standby, breathlessly waiting to approve Stokes's selection if only the police and the CPS would give them a way out? Say they'd been able to get Stokes into the Test side - d'you think the incident outside the Mbargo nightclub might have been raised by the Australian team, supporters and media ... to the point where it might have become a distraction? (Seems possible, but clearly not a concern). Or the following summer, when Stokes was in the Test side the week before and the week after his affray trial? (Distraction schmistraction).
The World Cup is still a little while away, but looking at the coverage of, and reaction to, the dropping of Alex Hales, I'm not sure how successful the ECB's distraction-avoidance measures will end up being. They might have been better off leaving him in the squad and just letting his suspensions play out.
