‘Me, me, me’: Tim Paine slams Ben Stokes’ World Cup un-retirement as star left out of warm-up series

Former Australian captain Tim Paine has blasted England star Ben Stokes’ long-expected decision to reverse his ODI retirement call just months out from the 2023 World Cup.

Stokes, England’s Test captain the hero of their 2019 World Cup triumph, surprisingly chose to call it quits on the 50-over format in July last year, citing the physical and mental demands of playing all three formats.

However, it has been rumoured for months that the star all-rounder would make a comeback for the prestige tournament, and so it has proved.

Speaking on SEN Tassie, Paine suggested the turnaround was a selfish move from Stokes, given he has claimed the spot of a teammate who has been available for England throughout the last year – young gun Harry Brook has been dumped from the team’s 15-man squad to face New Zealand in September in preparation for the tournament, and seems likely to remain on the sidelines for the World Cup itself.

“It was a bit of, ‘Me, me, me’, there isn’t it?” Paine remarked.

“It was, ‘I’ll pick and I’ll choose where I want to play and when I want to play’, and, ‘I’ll play in the big tournaments’.

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