England all-rounder Ben Stokes has slammed the \u201cstupid\u201d size of boundary marking sponges at stadiums after seamer Reece Topley was ruled out of the T20 World Cup having suffered a leg injury by stepping on one during a fielding drill.<\/p>\n
Topley, who has picked up 22 wickets in as many T20 games, sustained ligament damage to his left ankle ahead of a warm-up clash against Pakistan and was replaced by fellow fast bowler Tymal Mills for the tournament in Australia.<\/p>\n
The triangular sponges \u2014 which are about 20cm in height and width \u2014 have become increasingly common in cricket venues around the world and offer advertising space, but Stokes said the sport\u2019s authorities should also address player safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s stupid. Unfortunately, it\u2019s taken one of our players to be ruled out\u2026 to make people notice,\u201d Stokes said. \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure it\u2019s something they can look at but you know what it\u2019s like \u2014 everybody wants to get their names on somewhere,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you look at player safety and the fact he\u2019s stood on it and it\u2019s ruptured ligaments and now he\u2019s out of the World Cup; it should be looked at. I\u2019m devastated for him,\u201d the cricketer insisted.<\/p>\n
Expressing concern for his teammate, he said, \u201cWe\u2019re all just absolutely gutted for him that he\u2019s missed out\u2026 because he would have been one of the first names on the team sheet.\u201d<\/p>\n
But England captain Jos Buttler played down the issue, saying that it was an accident.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it is a big issue,\u201d Buttler said. \u201cPeople used to play in the past with no boundary rope and used to run into a fence,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The International Cricket Council did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.<\/p>\n
England, T20 World Cup champions in 2010, will open their campaign against Afghanistan in Perth later on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
England all-rounder Ben Stokes has slammed the \u201cstupid\u201d size of boundary marking sponges at stadiums after seamer Reece Topley was ruled out of the T20 World Cup having suffered a leg injury by stepping on one during a fielding drill. Topley, who has picked up 22 wickets in as many T20 games, sustained ligament damage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11184,11185,1336,11183],"class_list":{"0":"post-290865","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ben-stokes","9":"tag-boundary","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-reece-topley-injury"},"yoast_head":"\n