Tim Paine slams Ben Stokes' Ashes 2023 documentary remarks

New Delhi,UPDATED: Jul 8, 2024 16:28 IST

Former Australia Test captain Tim Paine has come down heavily on the England Test captain Ben Stokes for his comments from the Ashes 2023 documentary. Paine gave a stern reminder to the England team that they are a 'below-average' Test side and that they need to get their 'head around that'. In the documentary released by the ECB, Stokes was spotted saying that his Test side will forever live in the memory of people who have been lucky enough to witness them play.

Tim Paine found Ben Stokes's statement to be bizarre and out of the place as the series ended 2-2 and Australia managed to retain the urn. The England team under the leadership of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum are currently placed at the ninth position in the ongoing cycle of the World Test Championship and had failed to qualify for the final in the last edition of WTC as well.

Paine lashes out at England team

"I think it was taken slightly out of context because he was talking in a changing room and it was a bigger speech, so I will say that," Paine told on SEN Tassie Breakfast.

"However, it's just this continued belief that they're completely changing the game and they're doing this amazing stuff and everyone's going to remember it â€æ they're not.

"You're coming dead last in the World Test Championship. You're not going to be a team that everyone remembers watching and you're not doing anything outrageously good that we haven't seen before.
"You're an average cricket team. (Actually) you're at the moment, a below-average cricket team and I think they need to get their head around that a little bit," Paine remarked.

Ben Stokes' dressing room comments

The ECB had shared a clip of Stokes' speech in the dressing room on the eve of the 5th Test match at Old Trafford, Manchester.

"Everything we've done up until now isn't going to stop because we haven't managed to win the urn back," Stokes told his teammates in the dressing room after the disappointment of not finding an outright result in Manchester.

"The reward for our work isn't what we get, but what we become.

"And what we have managed to do is, we've managed to become a sports team that will live forever in the memory of people who were lucky enough to witness us play cricket."

While Australian media outlet Fox Sports took a jibe at Stokes' remarks on social media, the Englishman responded: "Said this to the team who had watched it rain for 2 days when we had our foot on your throats, just tried to cheer up the disappointment, but anyway, rent-free and all that."