Cricket World Cup 2023: Ben Stokes’ post-Ashes snub of Pat Cummins set to ignite

All eyes will be on how Pat Cummins and Ben Stokes interact in Ahmedabad for their first meeting since England’s highly disputed post-Ashes snub of Australia.

It is the secret snub that adds an extra layer of tension and potentially sweet satisfaction for Australia in Saturday night’s World Cup showdown against downtrodden England.

Ben Stokes, who went to great lengths to insist his players had not stood Australia up for a traditional post-Ashes beer, allegedly gave counterpart Pat Cummins the coldest of cold shoulders when the teams met up at a London nightclub.

It’s three months ago now since the volcanic Ashes series came to a close, but all eyes will be on how the two teams – and most specifically the two skippers – interact in Ahmedabad for their first meeting since the highly disputed nightclub rendezvous.

“I’m also reliably informed that he (Stokes) was very, very cold to Pat Cummins (at the nightclub). Very cold,” former Australian captain Tim Paine claimed on SEN radio a few days after the beer snub controversy took place.

“It hasn’t been confirmed by any players but I have it from some pretty good sources.

“So it wasn’t all matey, matey. I think the guys who are friends had a beer together but I think the rest of them stayed pretty separate. That’s my mail.”

Ben Stokes allegedly snubbed Pat Cummins at a nightclub post-Ashes. Picture: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

This was after Stokes claimed the two teams “decided” to meet up in a nightclub instead of the dressing rooms at The Oval following the final days’ play – trying to shoot down the optics that England had acted on the threat of coach Brendon McCullum earlier in the series and brushed Australia for a beer.

When this masthead put Paine’s version of events directly to Cummins (in an interview a month after the Ashes) that Stokes was cold towards him at the nightclub, the Australian skipper gave a more general recap of his disappointment at what happened but did not directly address Paine’s claim.

“It would have been good to have a beer with them (in the dressing rooms). We waited around for a while and yeah, coincidentally bumped into them at a club a bit later on,” Cummins said.

“I don’t know, but it would have been good to kind of review a series with them. But not to be.”

Asked did he feel respect between the two Ashes captains was a two-way street, Cummins declined to be drawn: “I don’t know.”

Stokes is not the captain of England’s one-day team but is once again a man in the spotlight given he came out of 50-over retirement for a World Cup that’s become a car crash for the defending champions.

Reversing his retirement at the 11th hour before World Cup selection is a move Paine has separately described as “selfish.”

Before the World Cup, Stokes claimed England had moved on from the Ashes ‘stumping-gate’ firestorm, but during the tournament, comments from Jonny Bairstow and Stuart Broad doubling down on the incident were released, raising eyebrows from Australia.

Australia and England will play the World Cup semi-final with many key Ashes players meeting again for the first time. Picture: Arun Sankar/AFP

England were themselves angered by the way Australian players made light of Bairstow’s furious reaction to the dismissal in the Lord’s dining room in a podcast with The Grade Cricketer.

It is not a Test match taking place at Ahmedabad on Saturday, but plenty of the main protagonists are clashing again for the first time, including Stokes and Bairstow and the vast majority of Australia’s Ashes chargers, minus Alex Carey.

There is no love lost between the sides, but England have a more pressing motivation than re-engaging in an Ashes slugfest.

England are mired on the bottom of the World Cup table with only one victory and desperately need to lift against their old enemy or risk finishing dead last and suffering the embarrassment of missing the next ICC ODI Champions Trophy event.

The mid-Cup retirement of England’s best bowler David Willey in response to discovering mid-tournament that he had been snubbed for an ECB contract has also laid bare the tensions within the camp, first outlined by former captain Michael Vaughan.

Australia has its own issues with Glenn Maxwell ruled out of the England match with concussion after inexplicably tumbling off the back of a golf cart, while Mitchell Marsh has also left camp due to a family illness.

For Australia, the England clash is a chance to not only exact some Ashes revenge – but more importantly lock up a World Cup semi-final berth.

Originally published as Cricket World Cup 2023: Ben Stokes’ post-Ashes snub of Pat Cummins set to ignite