England all-rounder Ben Stokes and former West Indian Marlon Samuels have been involved in a few on and off-field spats over the years. In this piece we look at what’s gone wrong between them.
The Stokes-Samuels spat background
The first time that Ben Stokes and Marlon Samuels came head to head was in 2015. England were touring West Indies and had gone into the series as favourites but a Jason Holder ton had denied them a victory in the first Test at Antigua.
In the second Test, Samuels had responded with a century with Stokes exchanging a few words with him during the course of that knock.
Later, when Stokes was dismissed by Devendra Bishoo in England’s first innings, Samuels had given the England all-rounder a mock salute as a way of sending him off.
Not to be left too far behind, Stokes covered his mouth when Samuels came out to bat in the second innings before clapping hard after his innings was ended by James Anderson for 37.
(Joe Root would later imitate Samuels’ salute when Stokes hit a quickfire century against New Zealand in a Lord’s Test!)
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Spillover to the 2016 T20 World Cup
Cricketers have long memories and things didn’t stop at the 2015 Test series, spilling over to the 2016 T20 World Cup final.
West Indies were taking on England and while Samuels had smashed an innings of 85 not-out in their chase of 156, they still needed 19 to win off the final over.
Samuels was at the non-striker’s end and Stokes was the bowler when Carlos Brathwaite smashed four sixes off successive balls to lead West Indies to their second T20 World Cup title.
A few comments from Samuels were directed at Stokes in that final over for which he was fined 30% of his match fee, but more vitally, the West Indian all-rounder took on his English counterpart at the press conference that followed.
Named the man-of-the-match, Samuels entered the press conference, sat on his seat and spread his legs on the table in front of him. He went on to suggest that it was Stokes’ comments directed at him that fired him up for his innings.
He also reserved something similar for ex Aussie cricketer Shane Warne.
West Indian captain Darren Sammy would later confirm this, alleging the following:
“Marlon told us something, and maybe Joe Root could confirm that, when Marlon came in at 11-3, Stokes came to bowl and he said something like ‘you guys, I would like to see you come out of this one” and Marlon was just taking his time, making sure. That comment, whatever Stokes said to him as he walked in, that got him really focussed.”
In his autobiography, Firestarter, Stokes said he did not like Samuels at all and called his shenanigans following the 2016 T20 World Cup final “a total disrespect for the game”.
Samuels tells Stokes to remain at boundary
Samuels was selected for the 2017 limited overs tour and with Stokes expecting to get as well, it was the first time they were expected to go toe to toe in an international series again.
When asked about a possible reunion with Stokes, Samuels had responsed:
“As long as he keeps quiet, I won’t start anything, so if anything does happen that means he has said something to me first. I’m going to come to England and be a good boy … at least for the start of it.”
“He wanted to take me on a couple of years ago [during England’s 2015 tour of the Caribbean, scene of the infamous salute]. He started something and I told him he better be prepared to finish it. But I saw him during the IPL this year and he didn’t say anything. I hope he can continue on that path. If not, I have things in place.”
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Stokes’ ‘banter’ following 2020 quarantine
After a couple of years of so-called calm, the two were at it yet again and this time it was Stokes who stoked the fire. Well, some might argue it was a very innocent remark but the fact of the matter still is he brought up Samuels’ name.
Speaking with the BBC on the Test Match Special podcast in 2020, Stokes was asked about his time in quarantine. This was during peak Covid-19 times when sports was only just returning and the players had been forced to undergo quarantining in case they were travelling between countries.
Stokes admitted it was one of the toughest times he had had to endure and added ‘I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy’.
He went on to say that he relayed the same message to his brother who asked Ben if that included Samuels and Stokes responded, “no it’s that bad, that’s how tough it is”
That opened a can of worms!
Samuels’ responds with unwholesome tweet
Not very pleased to be spoken about in what Samuels considered to be derogatory, the Jamaican all-rounder came out all guns blazing. In a rather shocking tweet, Samuels launched a horrible attack on Stokes.
He took on Stokes for his skin colour and his wife, other than calling him names.
Samuels said:
“No white boy could diss me in the sports and no get back diss look at this b***h still thinking about me give me 14 days with you wife turn her into Jamaican in 14 seconds mate none of yall knows me that simple means it’s my f***ing superior skin tone yall hate f*** you.”
Shocked, multiple former cricketers responded, castigating Samuels for his comments, including Michael Vaughan and Shane Warne. Warne, who had already had a history with Samuels, asked the West Indian to get some help.
I’ve just been sent what Samuels has posted re @benstokes38 & I. It’s a very sad situation as he obviously needs serious help-but has no friends at all & not even his ex teammates like him. Just because you were an ordinary cricketer-no need to be an ordinary person. Get help son
— Shane Warne (@ShaneWarne) October 28, 2020
Stokes responded to this with a plenty of Samuels photos to his Instagram story but made no comment on them.
We await further chapters in this war of words between Stokes and Samuels.
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