‘Allegations of physical quarrel with wife irresponsible’

LONDON: Ben Stokes has labelled allegations that he and his wife Clare were involved in a physical altercation at an awards ceremony as “totally irresponsible”.

The all-rounder played a starring role in England’s maiden World Cup win in July before repeating his heroics to help salvage an Ashes draw with Australia. The 28-year-old Durham player was honoured for those achievements when he was named players’ player of the year at last week’s Professional Cricketers’ Association awards in London.

On Tuesday, pictures emerged of Stokes and his wife seemingly involved in a physical confrontation at the event. Clare Stokes defended her husband in a Twitter post which included a photo of her pushing the cricketer’s face, in apparent mockery of the images that surfaced from the awards night.

“Unbelievable what nonsense these people will make up!” she said. “Me and Ben messing about squishing up each other’s faces cos that’s how we show affection and some pap tries to twist it into a crazy story! And all before we then have a romantic McDonalds 20 mins later!”

The New Zealand-born cricketer responded to his wife’s tweet with a face blowing a kiss emoji. Stokes later responded with a statement to the Daily Mirror newspaper in which he paid tribute to the “wonderful relationship” he and his wife enjoy.

“I have become used to people making stuff up about me, but of all the topics not to mess with, domestic abuse has to be at the top of the list,” he said. “It’s an incredibly serious issue for thousands of women — and men — who do suffer domestic abuse.” “To falsify and spread these kind of allegations so willingly is totally irresponsible,” he added.