Ben Stokes' five month exile from England duty will end on Friday when he rejoins the national side in New Zealand.
Stokes pleaded not guilty to a charge of affray at Bristol Magistrates Court on Tuesday and, after establishing he did not need to appear at the next hearing on March 12, boarded a flight the following day.
Having departed Heathrow and travelled via Abu Dhabi and Melbourne, Stokes is due to land in Auckland on Friday afternoon.
He will then be met by members of the England and Wales Cricket Board's support staff and driven around 70 miles to Hamilton, where the Twenty20 squad are currently based.
His arrival at the team hotel will mark a formal reintroduction to the set-up, having last been involved in the one-day victory over the West Indies on September 24.
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A night out with fellow players after that match culminated in an altercation outside a nightclub, leading to a lengthy police investigation during which he was deemed unavailable for selection.
Stokes went on to miss the entire 4-0 Ashes defeat, the subsequent ODI campaign and the ongoing T20 tri-series.
England will already have trained by the time he touches down, though the gruelling nature of his journey means he would not have been expected to take part on Friday anyway.
The 26-year-old could net with the team on Saturday, but England have made it clear there is no prospect of him featuring at Seddon Park against New Zealand 24 hours later.
If New Zealand defeat Australia in Auckland, England's chances of making the final would be over, making their final triangular match a dead rubber and theoretically providing a tempting occasion to restore Stokes to the field.
But they are in no rush to press him into action before he has proved his match sharpness and may prefer, in those circumstances, to blood the uncapped Sam Curran, who has been part of the touring squad over the past couple of weeks.
Instead, Stokes' focus will be on pushing for selection for the first ODI, also at Hamilton, on February 25.
Speaking earlier in the week, head coach Trevor Bayliss, indicated he would need to see the player up close before making a final decision on his readiness.
"Having a chat around practice you'll probably be able to see whether he's hitting them well in the nets, how it's coming out with his bowling," said the Australian.
"It's about making a judgement call at some stages. In the past he's been out with injuries and come back sooner than we thought. That's the type of character he is and it doesn't take him long at all to get back up to speed.
"He's been indoors doing plenty in the last month or two, so it's not as if he's been doing absolutely nothing - it'll just be a case of getting him on turf wickets and a few outdoor nets.
Asked if there were any concerns about the crowd reaction on his return, Bayliss added: "He'd probably cop some anyway, even if he hadn't been out for the last few months. It's par for the course.
"Most of the crowds wherever you go around the world target an opposition player. It's usually one of the better players, to try and put them off their game and Ben's been through all that before."
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
UAE rugby in numbers
5 - Year sponsorship deal between Hesco and Jebel Ali Dragons
700 - Dubai Hurricanes had more than 700 playing members last season between their mini and youth, men's and women's teams
Dh600,000 - Dubai Exiles' budget for pitch and court hire next season, for their rugby, netball and cricket teams
Dh1.8m - Dubai Hurricanes' overall budget for next season
Dh2.8m - Dubai Exiles’ overall budget for next season
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
MOTHER%20OF%20STRANGERS
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More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
In 2018, the ICRC received 27,756 trace requests in the Middle East alone. The global total was 45,507.
There are 139,018 global trace requests that have not been resolved yet, 55,672 of these are in the Middle East region.
More than 540,000 individuals approached the ICRC in the Middle East asking to be reunited with missing loved ones in 2018.
The total figure for the entire world was 654,000 in 2018.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Disturbing%20facts%20and%20figures
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
SHALASH%20THE%20IRAQI
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
