Ben Stokes is at the center of a civil war between him and the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The England team gathers in Nottingham for a series decider against New Zealand.

Stokes is due to speak the day before the third Test, and the ECB has no idea what he will say.

What happened?

Stokes went from acting apologetic in WhatsApp groups with England's management to threatening to retire.

He felt cornered into resigning as captain, a job he "f------ loves" according to an Instagram post in March.

Why it matters for Ben Stokes

The incident was blown out of proportion by the ECB, according to Stokes.

He dug a trench over the fact he had done nothing wrong because the curfew rules were opaque.

The Harry Brook precedent was in Stokes' favour, as Brook had committed a worse offence and was fined, not suspended.

What comes next?

Stokes could apologise for what happened in the Chelsea nightclub or go on the attack.

His anger is fed by the refusal of Rob Key and Brendon McCullum to back him in public.

The ECB travelled its own journey from fury over Stokes breaking the rules to recognising those rules were not codified clearly enough.

Senior figures at the ECB wondered if the pressure was making Stokes act recklessly by going on a long drinking binge.

Key said in his press conference that "it's not just about what's happened on Sunday night".

Stokes had been snappy and acted a little out of character before the Lord's Test started.

The ECB lacked a mandate to sack Stokes, and public and pundit support was with the captain to carry on.

England also lacked a replacement captain or all-rounder, which was hammered home in the defeat at the Oval.

The situation could have been resolved quickly with a swift investigation and an apology from the players.

But it descended into a long bureaucratic process and a new chapter in the battle between Stokes and the ECB started.

Michael Vaughan wrote a *Telegraph Sport* column on Sunday night headlined "Ben Stokes and the ECB can never trust each other again".

The column was briefly reposted by Stokes' account, then deleted.

Neil Fairbrother, Stokes' agent and confidant, also reposted the column.

The Stokes-ECB relationship crumbled over the Bristol court case in 2018.

After winning England the 2019 World Cup final, Stokes told Lord Patel, an ECB board member, that he felt let down.