When David Warner was involved in a public scandal, involving tampering with ball, there was an outcry around the world.  Warner was disqualified for life from becoming captain of Australia.  I thought then, and I continue to think, that this was a vicious over-reaction by those in authority protecting their own backs for their responsibility for a failed team culture. 

It also looked illogical.  How can you be trusted to represent your country, but not captain others doing the same?  But it did not help that Warner had a reputation for being rude and aggressive – at a time when Australian cricketers tended to behave that way.  (We have since changed for the better under Pat Cummins and mature coaches.)

To put it softly, Ben Stokes has form for his latest misconduct.  It is a dreadful breach of trust for him to breach his team’s rules about public behavior and stay out beyond a curfew.

The game finished, I gather, at lunchtime.  The incident occurred after midnight.  Those involved were not sipping tea all those hours.  According to the press, Stokes was on rum and coke when an incident occurred – a rugby player at a night spot went to hit an English bowler and took out his bodyguard instead.  (The victim required stitches.  The press say the Police were not called.) 

The fact that a body guard was present indicates that there was an element of what lawyers call ‘voluntary assumption of risk’.  Stokes is reported to have said that the English players were thrilled at their win – against a nation with a population of little more than half that of London.

Why on earth do those in charge – in their leather lounges at the M C C – just not ban all drinking in public during or straight after a game?  These people just cannot be trusted.  And do the scions at Lord’s not recall the outrageous jostling of Usman Khawaja, the living standard of civility?

Well, Stokes will have to stand down as captain – and be replaced by someone with form for similar misconduct.  But the question will then remain – how can he be trusted to represent his country, but not to lead it?

Some will say this would be hard on Stokes – who had been a real national hero.  Well, our High Court has ruled that when it comes to enforcing professional standards, the quality of mercy becomes strained of necessity.  People in positions of trust have to live up to expectations – or just drop out.

And the last people who can bleat about fairness to public drunks are those members of the London Establishment who jeered at David Warner and roughed up Usman Khawaja. 

They deserve to cop it – right down their bloody Jermyn Street fronts.