Video footage allegedly shows Stokes in Bristol brawl

A video footage that has captured the infamous street brawl outside a night club involving England's Test vice-captain Ben Stokes, in Bristol, in the early hours of Monday (September 25) morning has been obtained by The Sun, and the England and Wales Cricket Board is understood to have viewed it.

"We have seen this footage for the first time tonight - when posted by The Sun. There is an ongoing Police investigation, which will look at all available evidence, and we do have to respect that process," the ECB spokesman said.

The footage allegedly shows Stokes throwing punches at two men in a nasty face-off that took place outside a Bristol night club. In the video, Stokes is seen involved with a man who appears to have a bottle in his hand. The England all-rounder continued throwing fists at two men in an exchange that lasted close to a minute, while his teammate Alex Hales is seen trying to hold Stokes back. "Enough, Stokes" and pleadings to calm down the 26-year-old were heard on the footage.

Following the incident, Stokes was arrested at 2.35 AM on Monday in the Clifton area of Bristol. He was held overnight by the police, on the suspicion of causing bodily harm in a drunken incident, and released later in the day without any charges.

Andrew Strauss, Director, England Cricket, confirmed on Wednesday (September 27) that Stokes had suffered a minor fracture of the little finger on his right hand. There is of course the possibility that Stokes will be unavailable because he has to be in the UK to face any resultant charges which come from the police investigation. "All we can do at this moment is deal with what we know," Strauss had said. "We have no idea how things are going to develop from a police perspective and it would be wrong for us to second guess that in any way. We are judging our Ashes selection on that basis."

The ECB Director of Cricket had confirmed that Stokes remained their Test vice-captain pending the outcome of any disciplinary process which is currently ongoing. Strauss doesn't expect that process to be resolved before the end of the ODI series against Windies, so it will likely be a number of days before any decision is made. He would not be drawn on who else might be subject to the disciplinary process but James Anderson, Jake Ball and Alex Hales could be impacted after joining Stokes on his night out.

"I don't think right now is the time to comment on what may or may not happen from a disciplinary point of view. At the moment, what I'm doing is speaking to the players individually to get their accounts of what went on on Sunday night. There is a disciplinary protocol that is in place as part of their conditions of employment. We need to follow that for all players who may be subject to disciplinary proceedings, including Ben."

The Police would look into the footage and other evidence to see if Stokes's actions came in an act of self defence, or otherwise, depending on which could lead to prosecution. The all-rounder is also England's highest paid cricketer after his talk-of-the-town INR 14.5 crore signing with the Rising Pune Supergiant in the IPL 2017 auction.