England cricket chiefs rallied round star all-rounder Ben Stokes after he criticised a British newspaper report about a family tragedy more than 30 years ago.
Tom Harrison, chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), said he was "disgusted and appalled" by the front-page story in The Sun tabloid on Tuesday.
Stokes, who helped England win the World Cup this year and played a starring role in the just-completed drawn Ashes series against Australia, has called the report "utterly disgusting" and said it touched on "deeply personal and traumatic events" involving the deaths of members of his New Zealand-based family more than 30 years ago.
Stokes, 28, was born in New Zealand but moved to England as a boy. In an ECB statement, Harrison said: "We, like the wider sporting world, are disgusted and appalled at the actions taken in revealing the tragic events from Ben's past.
"We are saddened that an intrusion of this magnitude was deemed necessary in order to sell newspapers or secure clicks. Ben's exploits at Lord's and Headingley cemented his place in cricket history this summer -- we are sure the whole sport, and the country, stands behind him in support."
"For more than three decades, my family has worked hard to deal with the private trauma inevitably associated with these events and has taken great care to keep private what were deeply personal and traumatic events."
"The Sun has huge admiration for Ben Stokes and we were delighted to celebrate his sporting heroics this summer. He was contacted prior to publication and at no stage did he or his representatives ask us not to publish the story."