Gerard Whateley has dissected the situation that led to Ben Stokes bowling 14 no-balls throughout Day 2 of the Gabba Test, slamming the star all-rounder as “grossly unprofessional”.
Stokes had bowled David Warner in his first over in what was a big breakthrough for the tourists, however Australia’s opener was recalled to the crease when Stokes was found to have overstepped.
It was then revealed that Stokes had bowled a no-ball the previous four deliveries of that over – all which weren’t called by the standing umpires – before the eventual total came to 14 from Stokes alone in the first session.
There were 14 (!) no-balls bowled by Ben Stokes in the first session.
— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) December 9, 2021
Just one was called on-field, plus the 'wicket' ball on review #Ashes pic.twitter.com/ePfj0YEaHH
The ICC has recently taken the responsibility of calling no-balls off the on-field umpires, with specific cameras streamed to the third umpire to decide if a bowler has overstepped.
However, the cameras failed, and the onus was put back on the umpires to call any no-balls.
Whateley believes there were three layers of fault, starting with Ben Stokes’ inability to get his front foot behind the line, even after it cost him Warner's wicket.
“First thing I want to say is grossly unprofessional by Ben Stokes,” he told SEN Breakfast.
“The first layer of fault is with the professional athlete, that is mind-boggling and speaks of the lack of cricket he’s played, but not to be able to make the adjustment, bizarre.”
The veteran broadcaster also pinned the blame on the ICC and standing umpires for the debacle.
“The ICC are the second layer, what about them,” Whateley continued.
“They knew the technology had failed in the leadup, but they didn’t tip their hand, they were going to try to get away with it.
“Oh, come on. Just say before the Test, ‘This is what’s happened, so we are going to have to revert to our old systems', which probably sharpens the minds of the two umpires in the middle.
“(With the umpires) there’s no diligence around the front line anymore because it’s been trained out of them and they weren’t able to snap back to it, and that’s not great, especially when Ben Stokes is doing it so often.
“So, the layers of failure in that are just ludicrous.
“When you think it through, if Stokes took a wicket, he was a 50/50 chance of having it overturned.
“So guess what, it happened.”
Despite injury concerns after a fielding incident early in the day, Stokes has continued to bowl throughout Australia's first innings.