Ben Stokes refused to give assurances on his long-term future as England cricket captain after his latest disciplinary controversy, saying his full focus was on the deciding Test of the series against New Zealand. Commenting publicly for the first time since being dropped pending an investigation into an incident at a nightclub after the first Test, Stokes did not go into details about the controversy or whether he considered giving up the captaincy, or indeed retiring.The England all-rounder also said he did not feel his relationship with coach Brendon McCullum had deteriorated as a result of the events of the past two weeks.Instead, Stokes played a straight bat at most questions in a 15-minute news conference, explaining he was not looking beyond the third and final Test against New Zealand starting tonight (AEST) at Trent Bridge."I'm focusing on this week," he said. "This has been something that has happened and has obviously taken a lot of attention away from the series You don't plan on going through something like this together, in a professional environment."But, me and Brendon were talking pretty much every day … maybe in the future, we look back on this and go, you know, this did bring us tighter, this did bring us closer."While England was slumping to defeat in the second Test, Stokes was playing for Durham in the county championship.He hit 95 at a time when his form with the bat was under scrutiny."Maybe being on the front pages for the wrong reasons could be good for my cricket," he said.AP