WE GO AGAIN
KEVIN McCALLUM: Hitman Ben needs more timing practice — or rather not
Timing is everything. Ben Stokes was on the front cover of The Times of London’s Magazine this week. The headline read: "The Hit Man." Inside, a large pull-out quote from the England cricketer read: "There is adrenaline there, but I’d never get close to punching someone." He was speaking about altercations on the pitch. The rest of the quote gives some context. "It’s the heat of the moment. Trying to be the bloke to get the wicket that will change the game back in our favour." Except that that context needs some more context. In the piece in The Times, Stokes speaks of why he has a Maori tattoo, a nod to his background in New Zealand and the tribe he has ties to. Both sides of the family have Maori in them, but his mum’s side has more than his dad’s.The writer, Nigel Farndale, suggests that it "is a war-like tribe, presumably, for the Stokes fuse is famously short". When opposition teams sledge him — that is, try to make him lose concentration at the crease by winding him up — the o...
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