"Distasteful arrogance of this English team"- Fans slam Ben Stokes over his shocking remark on Bazball during Ashes 2023 documentary

England captain Ben Stokes has raised a few eyebrows with one of his quotes from the Ashes 2023 documentary released by the England and Wales Cricket Board. The remark came after the Manchester Test of Ashes 2023, which ended in a draw due to rain, resulting in Australia retaining the ashes with a 2-1 lead.

While the England room was deflated, Ben Stokes gave a fiery speech in which he claimed that the people were lucky enough to witness England playing the Bazball brand of cricket. Here's what he said:

"Everything we've done up until now isn't going to stop because we haven't managed to win the urn back. 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."

Fans on X (formerly Twitter) expressed their shock at Ben Stokes' quote and some also claimed that the England captain was delusional.

One user wrote:

"Stokes nicely distilled down the whole distasteful arrogance of this English team into one concise sentence."

"This England team are coming across like some evangelical cult. The arrogance to believe that hard working people want to pay £100+ a ticket, to England lose but ‘be lucky enough to watch us play cricket’🤦‍♀️. Christ lads, stop trying to be cult leaders and try to win matches 🤷‍♀️," wrote another.

Another user opined:

"Everyone older than me has said this is easily the most unlikeable England team and comments like this only back that up."

Here are some of the other reactions:

England are ninth in the World Test Championship points table with just 17.5 percentage points and three wins from ten games.

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What we have done is something bigger than any Ashes trophy: Ben Stokes

Ben Stokes further told his teammates that he understood it would be tough for the England players to take the field in the Oval Test knowing that they couldn't win back the urn of the Ashes. However, urging them to look at the big picture, here's what Stokes said:

"I know it's going to be a bit flat, I know it's going to hurt that we go into the next game (at The Oval) not being able to get the urn back. But what we have done is something a lot bigger than any Ashes trophy could ever signify for this team – be the team that everybody will always remember."

England ended up winning the Oval Test by 49 runs and levelled the Ashes series 2-2. Australia still haven't won an Ashes series in England since 2001 despite retaining the urn.