‘English culture towards sport’: Stokes shuts down criticism of Pope

Unfortunately for Ollie Pope, Ben Stokes’ injury came at a cost. While he has definitely been effective as a leader, with England winning the first two Tests against Sri Lanka, his batting has garnered unwanted attention. As a captain, Pope has amassed just 30 runs across two Tests, averaging a paltry 7.50. 

That has led to relentless criticism of Pope, including former England captain Michael Vaughan, who called him "an insecure human being". But Stokes was having none of that criticism, insisting that this was the ‘English culture towards the sport’. 

"Unfortunately, it's just English culture towards sport. There's always got to be someone in the firing line and obviously when you're captain you are more exposed to that,” Stokes told ESPNcricinfo. 

"He's won two games out of two in charge. At the end of the day, I think that's the thing that he's concentrated on the most. He obviously wants to be scoring runs and leading from the front. He's openly admitted that,” Stokes added. 

Pope’s efficiency as a captain was on point, with the Surrey man showing enough tactical nous across the two Tests where the Three Lions were put under immense pressure by Sri Lanka. 

"People are very quick to jump on anything, to someone who's in the firing line and obviously Pope coming in and being captain whilst I'm injured, you can say he's the easy target there.

"But I think he's done fantastically well in leading the team. He's done it his own way, which is something I encouraged him to do, to keep driving the team forward in the way that I've been trying to do, but make sure that you put your own personal touches to it.”

What has been forgotten, however, is that Pope was in sizzling form prior to the series against Sri Lanka, with scores of 57, 121 and 51 in the previous series against West Indies. Stokes pointed at his series of scores and hit out at the criticism, calling them ‘short memories people’. 

"I think he's tactically he's done very well. Let's not forget before that first Test against Sri Lanka, he'd come off the back of fifty, fifty and a hundred (57, 121 and 51 in consecutive innings against West Indies). And then he doesn't have one good game and everyone's saying he is out of form. It's like 'short memories people, come on!'"

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