England youngster Ben Stokes has third operation on finger injury

Ben Stokes has travelled to Indianapolis for a third operation on the finger injury that is threatening to prevent the New Zealand-born Durham all-rounder from making his expected progress into the England team. Stokes made his senior international debut in the one-day series against India in September but had to withdraw from the last game with another recurrence of the problem that wrecked a 2011 season which had promised so much and has prevented him from bowling since May. The powerful left-hander suffered the injury when he dived to stop a fierce drive by the Lancashire opener Paul Horton in a championship match in May in which he had hit a career-best 185, including a rare six over the pavilion at Durham's Riverside ground. He was initially expected to be out for six to eight weeks after an operation to insert a pin to secure a fragment of bone in the finger that had been dislodged. But a scan then revealed that a second operation was needed to ensure the fragment was restored precisely, extending his absence into August. He did make it back for the end of the season and the one-dayers against India, but only as a batsman, and then the problem flared up again in net practice ahead of the last match of the series. Geoff Cook, Durham's director of cricket, said: "He was in some discomfort in the one-day internationals he played and he hasn't been able to bowl since he suffered the injury at the end of May." The latest operation, at the instigation of the England and Wales Cricket Board, is therefore crucial to Stokes's hopes of returning to full fitness before the start of next season. He wrote on Twitter: "Operation went really well, got a bit of bone took from my wrist and put into the finger joint, heard it all as I was awake, good experience." The former England all-rounder Craig White has become the first casualty of Yorkshire's relegation from the first division of the County Championship. White has decided not to reapply for the job of first-team coach which he was required to do as part of the shakeup instigated by the chairman, Colin Graves, in which Martyn Moxon has moved to a new role as director of cricket.