Ashley Giles fears England all-rounder Ben Stokes is being targeted after his heroics helped England to win but the negative stories against him might harm his career. On Tuesday, a couple of pictures were published of an alleged altercation between Stokes and his wife. However, Clare Stokes denied the claims that she had an altercation with Stokes and he referred to it as “totally irresponsible”. Even it was also in news that Stokes and his mother have launched legal action against The Sun newspaper after their old family tragedy that occurred more than 30 years ago came on the front page of the newspaper.

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“I was pretty sure as soon as I saw the story there was nothing in it but it was great to speak to both of them,” Giles said. “They were obviously concerned. We can all say domestic violence is a really serious issue and we’re not making light of that at all but in this case it’s a very happy couple having some fun – a picture telling a thousand words but just the wrong ones. I think it’s just a worry in some sense, as to how his profile can be used against him and how susceptible they are as a family to this. The bigger your profile the more difficult it can become.”

“There’s a lot of good stuff they get but a lot of negative stuff too. Part of my job is to protect them from that,” he said. “How you do that I’m not sure, you can’t always watch them and their families 24 hours a day, but we’re certainly there for them. Player welfare and support is a big thing for us going forwards.”