Stokes loving the media heat Down Under

Defiant England captain Ben Stokes says he will not allow intense media attention stop him enjoying Australia, calling it preferable to being back home where it is “miserable, freezing cold and dark” at this time of year.

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The team’s every move is scrutinised on the five-Test Ashes tour, with players followed through the airport, on golf courses and on a trip to an aquarium.

Stokes (right) and others players were this week snapped riding electric scooters around Brisbane without helmets, prompting a front-page “Pommy Idiots” headline from the city’s Courier-Mail newspaper last Thursday.

Not wearing a helmet is punishable by a fine under Queensland state law with police saying they had “engaged with those persons to inform and educate them on compliance requirements”.

Stokes said being under the microscope was part and parcel of being on tour in Australia and he was not letting it get to him.