So Ben Stokes is a man marred with controversies right now. After being charged with affray over the incident that took place outside of a bar in Bristol, the all-rounder has pledged to come clean in the trial by revealing his part of the story.

However, there is always a chance that the Englishman could be sentenced to prison or be barred from playing the game during the Indian Premier League. As a result, the governing body of the IPL have decided to allow a franchise to replace Ben Stokes should he be unavailable after being bought by them.

Stokes is among the 36 players with the highest base price of approximately $315,000. While buying him gives a team a perfect all-rounder, having him also brings about the risk of losing him due to the case. The Englishman is due to appear in Bristol Magistrates’ Court on the 13^th of February to answer against the charges placed on him by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Stokes still holds the record of the most expensive foreign player in the history of IPL. He was bought for a whopping $2.16 million last year and repaid his worth by being the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

The IPL would surely be a better tournament with the England international in the team.

Meanwhile, the IPL advisory have confirmed that Stokes has a NOC from the England Cricket Board, but his legal team doesn’t believe that the proceedings of the case will be concluded before the IPL. As a result, the governing body of the IPL had to make the decision

"The ECB have confirmed they will issue an NOC for Ben Stokes and advised that the Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) will wait for the conclusion of all criminal proceedings relating to the charge against Ben before it runs its independent process," the IPL advisory was quoted saying on Cricinfo.

"Ben's legal advisors have advised that they think it highly unlikely that the criminal proceedings will conclude before the end of IPL 2018," the IPL told the franchises. "They have advised that they do not expect the criminal proceedings will have any impact on Ben's availability for IPL 2018.