England cricket chiefs rallied round star all-rounder Ben Stokes after he criticized a British newspaper report about a family trdy more than 30 years ago. Tom Harrison, chief executive of England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), said he was "disgusted and appalled" by front-p story in Sun tabloid on Tuesday. Stokes, who helped England win World Cup this year and played a starring role in just-completed drawn Ashes series against Australia, has called report "utterly disgusting" and said it touched on "deeply personal and traumatic events" involving deaths of members of his New Zealand-based family more than 30 years ago. Stokes, 28, was born in New Zealand but moved to England as a boy.

In an ECB statement, Harrison said: "We, like wider sporting world, are disgusted and appalled at actions taken in revealing tragic events from Ben's past.

"We are sdened that an intrusion of this magnitude was deemed necessary in order to sell newspapers or secure s. Ben's exploits at Lord's and Heingley cemented his place in cricket history this summer -- we are sure whole sport, and country, stands behind him in support." 

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Ben Stokes' statement

In his own statement, Stokes said: "It is hard to find words that equately describe such low and despicable behavior, disguised as journalism. I cant conceive of anything more immoral, heartless or contemptuous to feelings and circumstances of my family. "For more than three deces, my family has worked hard to deal with private trauma inevitably associated with se events and has taken great care to keep private what were deeply personal and traumatic events."   England all-rounder took to micro-blogging website to post his statement about incident. Calling it a low and despicable behaviour disguised in form of journalism, Ben Stokes hit out at Sun for questioning his parents about a trdy that was private to family and for sensationalizing matter. Ben Stokes said his public profile was being used to inve lives of his family members and said that decision of newspaper to publish his personal details will have grave consequences on his mor. He furr went on to report that re were inaccuracies in reports published and said that it has compounded dam that has been caused. Ben Stokes concluded his statement by making a plea to respect his family’s privacy and his far’s life

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Sun defends its stance

Sun defended its approach, saying story h received extensive media cover in New Zealand at time. A spokeswoman for newspaper said: " Sun has utmost sympathy for Ben Stokes and his mor but it is only right to point out story was told with co-operation of a family member who supplied details, provided photographs and posed for pictures. " trdy is also a matter of public record and was subject of extensive front-p publicity in New Zealand at time. Sun has huge miration for Ben Stokes and we were delighted to celebrate his sporting heroics this summer. He was contacted prior to publication and at st did he or his representatives ask us t to publish story."  story has also revived a debate about ethics of British press. Press regulation campaign group Hacked Off condemned story. Hacked off-board member Steve Barnett told BBC rio story was "graphic evidence" of a newspaper "driving a coach and horses through ir own code of conduct". "He's done absolutely thing wrong and his own family history is dragged through mud. I can't see any justification for this or than fact it will sell papers. It was a brutally commercial decision which took account of ir own code of conduct, which says everyone deserves respect for ir private and family life," Barnett said. 

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