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Stokes eager for the rest

Cape Town - England allrounder Ben Stokes has defended the decision to rest him for the T20I clash with the West Indies which takes place at Chester-Le-Street.

Stokes has played a lot of his cricket at the venue being a Durham player and as such the decision has upset some involved with the cash-strapped County.

Durham were relegated from Division One of the County Championship in 2016 after going into administration, the T20I is the only international game to be hosted in the Northern county this season.

Stokes told Sky Sports: "It was a collective decision from myself, [coach] Trevor Bayliss and the selectors.

"With the game being played at my local ground where I’ve played all of my cricket I understand that people are going to be upset.

"Being an all-forms player, it’s very tough to get a rest – even if it is just two or three days here or there, it can do your body a lot of good."

The allrounder feels if the game had been at any other venue there would have been no issue with him taking the match off.

He added:"It’s just unfortunate that it’s coincided with it being at Durham. I think that if it was at another ground it probably wouldn’t be such a big issue.

"We’ve got such a big winter coming up and the five ODIs against the Windies after the Twenty20s. It was a decision made that it was probably best to rest me then rather than in one of the five ODIs that we’ve got."

The Third Test between England and the West Indies got underway on September 7 with the men from the Caribbean also scheduled to play Ireland in a one-off ODI.

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