Ben Stokes has lashed out at the International Cricket Council (ICC) following England’s World Test Championship points deduction, accusing the governing body of ignoring his concerns.

England were penalised with a 15 per cent match fee reduction and three World Test Championship points for slow over-rate during their recent victory over New Zealand in Christchurch.

This follows a hefty 19-point deduction for the same issue at the end of the 2023 Ashes series.

In response to the latest penalty, Stokes took to Instagram, sarcastically applauding the ICC and pointing out that the game finished with 10 hours of play still remaining.

He also expressed his growing frustration, revealing that he had raised several issues with ICC match referee Andy Pycroft after the Lord’s Test against Australia 18 months ago, but had received no response from the higher-ups.

Consequently, he refused to sign the official sheet acknowledging England’s latest infringement, a symbolic protest reflecting his increasing annoyance.

“It’s been over a year now since I made some comments around the over-rates and still to this day we’re yet to hear any response back from anyone at the ICC around that,” he said.

“”From a players point of view I’m not the only one who shares this opinion, that we would like to have a lot more communication with the ICC around this.

“I’ve not signed an over-rate sheet since Lord’s in the Ashes, just until we hear some communication back from the ICC that we’re still waiting for.”

“It needs to be discussed I think, from the ICC to the captains of all the teams. It’s been over a year and we’ve had no communication whatsoever.

“When you’re having results in games and you know teams are losing out on points, getting fined and stuff like that, it’s not working at the moment.”

Stokes also shared his concerns about the current approach to over-rates, especially in Tests with different bowling conditions: “There needs to be some consideration around how over-rates are going to differ,” he remarked.

“Obviously you get way more seam bowled in England, Australia, New Zealand and than when you go to Asia, where it’s a lot more spin and there’s never going to be an issue.”

He emphasised the challenges captains face during matches: “It’s so hard to find where you can get any of this time back when you’re out there in the middle.

“For me as a captain, I like to change things quite a lot and the field could be completely different six balls in an over but that’s not taken into consideration.

“Getting told to just hurry up isn’t going to fix it. We’re out there playing a game and cricket’s a game of skill but there’s also a lot of tactics that go into and that can take time.”

England rank sixth on the World Test Championship table after forfeiting 22 of their 124 points acquired. With 20 matches played in the qualifying cycle versus South Africa’s nine, Stokes has slammed the competition format as “utterly confusing”.