'Still To This Day No Response From ICC': Ben Stokes Hasn't Signed An Over-Rate Sheet Since Ashes

England Test captain Ben Stokes has revealed that he hasn't signed an over-rate sheet since the 2023 Ashes match at Lord's and has been in protest against the International Cricket Council (ICC). Stokes' astonishing claim came after England were fined for slow over-rate during the first Test match against New Zealand in Christchurch. Both teams were docked three World Test Championship (WTC) points with 15% match fee fines.

Ben Stokes slams the slow over-rate rule after England docked points

Ben Stokes came down hard on the ICC on Wednesday, a day before England's second Test match against New Zealand at Wellington. Stokes said that the slow over-rate penalties don't make sense when playing outside Asia with a pace-heavy bowling line-up. 

"The most frustrating thing, from both teams' points of view, is that the game finished early, there was a result. But I think the frustration actually stems back to last year in the Ashes where it was the first time I really brought it up to the match referee and the umpires," Ben Stokes was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

Ben Stokes has said that the over-rate has always been an issue depending on where the match is being played and what kind of style is being followed by the teams. 

“I guess the most frustrating thing is that it's always an issue depending on where you are in the world and the style of cricket that's played. There's never an over-rate issue in Asia because of how much spin is played.”

England captain explains why he is protesting against the ICC rule

Ben Stokes explained that his style of captaincy is totally different where he keeps making tactical changes almost every ball of the over, which obviously slows down the game a bit. He further argued that getting told to just hurry up will not fix the issue and will hamper the game.

"There's so many tactical decisions that you need to make, whether that be chatting with the bowler or field changes. As a captain, I like to change things quite a lot and the field could be completely different six balls in an over. But that's not taken into consideration. And getting told to just 'hurry up' isn't going to fix it, because we're out there playing a game.

“The times and the rules are the same wherever you go in the world. From a player's point of view - and I'm not the only one who shares this opinion - we would like to have a lot more communication with the ICC around this”

Stokes claims that he first raised this issue over a year ago, but despite not receiving a response from the ICC, they still deducted the points.

"But it's been over a year now since I made some comments around the over rates and still to this day we're yet to hear any response back from anyone at the ICC around that."

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