'My concern is Ben': McCullum putting Stokes' wellbeing first

Brendon McCullum has spoken of his concern for Ben Stokes’s wellbeing as the England captain sits out the second Test against New Zealand this week as a result of his breaking the team curfew after the first match in the series at Lord’s.

- Simon Burnton

The fallout from Stokes and his teammate Gus Atkinson deciding to spend the early hours of Monday morning last week at a Chelsea nightclub rather than at the team hotel has dominated the period between the two matches.

McCullum, the England head coach, admitted he initially had a strong negative reaction to learning about the curfew breach, but he said this quickly changed. He has spoken to Stokes every day since the story broke, and said those conversations had left him feeling worried.

"When I first found out about it I was slightly bewildered, if I’m being honest." McCullum said. "Then you go through a range of emotions. You go from being bewildered, on to angry, on to kind of gutted - from the progress which we talked about over the last six months and what we’re trying to do with the side, and some of the improvements we’ve tried to make, which includes the standards we want to set for ourselves, to hear about this was incredibly gutting.