Last year I completed a book on England’s cricket captains since Mike Brearley and the final chapter was devoted to Ben Stokes. It began with the observation: “There is jeopardy here”; it ended with the conclusion: “I would be hard pressed to name anyone in the last few decades who has done more than Ben Stokes to keep a format [Test cricket], still beloved by so many, alive.”
Jeopardy and Stokes have often been frequent bedfellows, on the field and off it. My jeopardy came in having to assess Stokes the captain before last winter’s Ashes series given that there is a long tradition of deciding the merit of England captains based upon their results against Australia. We know now it did not go so well; we also have an idea of how much torment it brought him. Yet I’m still content with those pre-Ashes observations. Of course there is always jeopardy with Stokes. We have never known what he would do next (which now includes his sudden decision to retire from international cricket). Moreover despite the recent disappointments, I think he remains one of the best captains England have had – to the amazement of most of us.
He set off as the brash novice, who was sent home early from a Lions tour of Australia in early 2013 for two breaches of discipline. Yet in December that year Stokes had made his debut for England in Adelaide before hitting a superb century on the fastest pitch in the world in Perth against an Australian pace attack that was completely undermining his older teammates. He was always extremely combative and how he relished the challenge posed by Mitchell Johnson and co. Graeme Swann has recalled how Brad Haddin, an exceptionally loquacious Australian wicketkeeper, started riling Stokes in that series from behind the stumps. In a generous gesture designed to keep both parties from strife, Swann privately explained to Haddin that it was not a good idea to mess with the young Stokes. There might be consequences. And Haddin took note.
By now he was on his helter-skelter ride. Stokes was soon the engine of the team and he excelled in the 2015 Ashes victory. He was the man when it mattered so it was natural that he should be given the final over in the 2016 World T20 final, whereupon Carlos Brathwaite hit him for four consecutive sixes. That would have finished a few cricketers but this was a pinprick for Stokes compared to the night of 25 September 2017 in Bristol. There he was arrested after a fight outside a nightclub; a gruesome scene was captured by a mobile phone and sold to the Sun newspaper and it seemed possible that his career was over; as a consequence he missed that winter’s Ashes tour. By now it was unthinkable that he might one day captain England, which Stokes acknowledged when he was handed the job in 2022.
That night in Bristol – for which he was subsequently found not guilty of affray – prompted a rethink and a fierce determination to atone for his mistakes. He trained almost obsessively, hardly a feature of his two great predecessors, Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff, and from a very high bar he improved as a cricketer. His contribution to the World Cup win in 2019 was spectacular and then at Headingley that August he played that innings against Australia, which David Gower, not a commentator renowned for hyperbole, called “the most incredible performance by anyone, ever”.
Yet there still seemed to be jeopardy when Stokes was suggested as Joe Root’s successor in 2022. The leadership trials of Botham, Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen were highlighted whenever the possibility of Stokes becoming captain was being discussed. There was surely the danger that England’s most charismatic cricketer would, once again, be burdened and then neutered by the job. This seemed a reasonable argument, albeit a simplistic one, which was met with a shrug of the shoulders from Stokes. “I’ve had to deal with those comparisons since I was 18,” he said.
However those doubts did not extend to the England dressing room. He was already the dominant character in the side, a de facto leader on and off the field. The transformation in England’s team was gobsmacking after his appointment. In their previous 17 Tests under Root they had won one game; in the next 13 they won 11. They played like a bunch of schoolkids enjoying their favourite game on a sunny afternoon. All-out attack was the mantra and the players loved the new freedom. Magically the fear of failure was banished. In his first overseas trip as captain, countless records were broken in Pakistan after three victories on the sort of surfaces that would have guaranteed nailed-on draws in previous decades. In unison with Brendon McCullum, Stokes had the team running towards danger with a smile. Test cricket had never been such fun.
We now discover that this system does not always work, especially against the best sides, Australia and India, on their own patch but we remain indebted to Stokes for transforming the way in which Test cricket is played. And there was grace as well as characteristic unorthodoxy about his parting. He may have been angry about how his employers had handled the latest incident after the Lord’s Test but in his interview with Ian Ward on Sky at the close of play at Trent Bridge on Sunday there was no bitterness evident. He still loved the game; amazingly he announced his intention to keep playing with Durham (possibly with a shorter run-up); he told us how he loved being England captain and that this was the greatest honour possible. But, as with his distinguished predecessors, Michael Vaughan and Nasser Hussain, and a couple of weeks ago, Kane Williamson of New Zealand, it suddenly hit him. He had given his all and it was time for him to go, a brilliant, charismatic sportsman and, glory be, a cricketer capable of grabbing the headlines during a football World Cup.
