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In the aftermath of Ben Stokes's now-infamous bar brawl in Bristol, England have drawn stricter lines on player behavior. There has been no crackdown on players' freedom or curfews put in place yet, with ECB Director of Cricket Andrew Strauss even stressing that he'd like 'giving players personal responsibility on and off the pitch', but various reports from England suggest that the players have been handed down strict messages and asked to behave themselves.
With the England players' public activities and conduct under more scrutiny than ever, Test captain Joe Root and fast bowler Stuart Broad have sought to distance themselves by pulling out of Jos Buttler's weekend stag party in Amsterdam.
Root, Broad and Buttler share the same agent, and are said to be close friends. However, Strauss is said to have asked some of the players to withdraw from the stag do in Amsterdam as ECB try to prevent a delicate situation from spiraling out of control.
Stokes and Alex Hales, both indefinitely out of consideration for selection in the England team, will also miss the trip to Netherlands as they continue to be investigated by the police.
The pair has found themselves in the eye of a storm after getting themselves involved in a late-night brawl outside a pub in Bristol. The exact circumstances which led to the altercation at around 2:30 AM on September 25 are still unknown - there have been reports of Stokes and Hales being provoked and the pair getting into an argument while going to help out a gay couple from being abused.
Later on, a video footage was released by The Sun newspaper which showed Stokes and Hales in a brawl with two other individuals outside the nightclub. The video ends with Stokes punching one of the men to the ground and slapping the other across his face. It soon led to the ECB indefinitely standing down both players from selection for the national team.
With the developments of the incident seeing no end in sight, Stokes faces a queasy delay. England have named him vice-captain for the Ashes squad that leaves them with less than a month from now, but it remains to be seen if he will travel. The ECB are also expected to announce the players' central contracts for 2017-18 next week.
ECB will hope, one way or another, that the matters are put to rest soon and the focus shifts back to cricket soon. They can only wait for the investigation to be completed by the police, but they have initiated steps to ensure there is no repeat in the future.
(CRICBUZZ)
