England white ball coach Matthew Mott has insisted Alex Hales and Ben Stokes do not need to be "best mates" as they bid to win the T20 World Cup.
Hales has been recalled to the England squad after more than three years in the international wilderness, having been axed in 2019 after failing a second recreational drugs test. Then captain Eoin Morgan was scathing in his criticism of Hales at the time, accusing him of showing a "complete disregard" for his teammates.
Hales was also involved in the infamous 2017 brawl in Bristol which resulted in Stokes being arrested and charged with affray. He was later acquitted at trial and pointedly referred to Hales as his "friend at the time" while discussing the ordeal in his recent Amazon Prime documentary.
After the incident, Stokes woke up in a police cell while Hales left to play golf without telling anyone what had occurred. And when asked about Hales' recall to the side and whether the pair had spoken recently, Stokes' focus was solely on the World Cup.
He said: "I think at the end of the day, everyone's goal is to win that World Cup for England. My goal, Alex's goal and everyone else who's part of that squad's goal is to win that World Cup."
And Mott is confident the pair will work well together as England aim to achieve that goal. "He's made mistakes but he's trying to get better and for me that's it," Mott said.
"Nobody's perfect, I'm certainly not, but if he's trying to get better and he's the best player then we can work around it. And as far as that [Stokes] relationship goes, they might not be best mates and that's OK.
"I'm sure you work with colleagues all the time who aren't your best mate but you can work with them if you've got a common goal. Ben's come out and stated that as well.
"He wants to win World Cups. I'm sure Alex does as well and we all do, so we try and pick the best players and if they end up becoming good mates again that's great; if not, as long as they're going towards that goal of winning the World Cup together then that's how teams function."
