England make tidy start to Ashes tour but shadow of Ben Stokes affair lingers
• England 349-6d drew with Western Australia XI 342-10
• Jimmy Anderson finds rhythm with four-wicket haul
England’s Ashes tour is well under way after they began with a tidy two-day draw with a Western Australia XI, but Andrew Strauss is keen to swiftly receive clarity and closure on the Ben Stokes situation, which remains beyond their control.
“The situation in a word is complicated,” Strauss, the director of cricket, told BBC Radio 5 Live. “There’s two different potential disciplinary procedures he has to go through, one is the ECB’s own internal one and the other is any potential police action. Until we know more from the police it’s very hard for us to put a timeline on anything.
