Cricket world rallies around shattered Ben Stokes

The cricket world is wrapping its arms around shattered English star Ben Stokes, whose devastated reaction to conceding four sixes off the last four balls of the game will be the lasting image of the World T20 final.

Well, everyone except Marlon Samuels. The West Indian, who won man of the match honours for his 85 not out, was happy to take a swing at anyone after Carlos Brathwaite crushed the winning runs to give the West Indies a four-wicket win.

"Stokes is a nervous lad you know," said Samuels. "I just told Brathwaite to just hold his pose and it would work in our favour.

"Stokes doesn't learn, because they keep telling him do not speak to me because I'm going to perform. I didn't even face a ball and he has so much to say to me, so I had to be there till the end. It is what I thrive on."

Stokes also copped plenty of grief that isn't worth repeating from keyboard warriors - but the emphatic support of his skipper and current and former cricketers is.

"It is not Ben's fault," said captain Eoin Morgan. "We're all in this together as we have been from the start.

"I can't fault anything we did with the ball and in the field, on the whole I'm very proud of my players. It is a cruel game."

Andrew Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen and Michael Vaughan were just some of the past English greats to put an arm around their fallen comrade.

But it wasn't just Englishmen moved by the Stokes tragedy.