Ben Stokes has retired from international cricket in the middle of a Test match which England were well on the way to losing against New Zealand, the country of his birth. He had just returned to the captaincy after being dropped for breaking the newly imposed (and absurd) team curfew, the night after beating New Zealand at Lord’s.
In this first Test of the summer, Stokes, in the field, had at times seemed little more than a disinterested spectator. Before that, he had, in Australia, presided over arguably the most shambolic performance ever by an England side in pursuit of the Ashes. They lost 4-1 and the behaviour of some of the players was such that it became known as the ‘stag party’ series.
This all amounts to a pretty considerable debit balance for Stokes. But it has to be set against an incredible credit balance built up over the previous years Stokes had spent wearing an England cap. As a batsman, a fast bowler, a brilliant catcher and fielder he had the ability in all of these departments to turn a match or a series and had done so on many occasions. Who will ever forget that 135 not out at Headingley in 2019 taking England to victory over Australia, or the 155 he made admittedly in a losing cause against them at Lord’s in 2023. In 2019, also at Lord’s, it was his astonishing 84 not out that enabled England to win their first World Cup with a thrilling victory over New Zealand.
His fast bowling was brilliant too although constantly affected by injury, and he had that happy knack of being able to take wickets when they were most needed. His catching was extraordinary and I shall always remember his diving catch in the gully to remove Adam Voges off Stuart Broad on the first morning at Trent Bridge in 2015. There was, too, a phenomenal one-handed catch deep on the leg side against South Africa at the Oval in the 2019 World Cup. And then came those direct hit run outs. A final tally of 7,273 runs and 252 wickets is unarguable proof of his greatness as a player.
He was given the captaincy in 2022, a move which immediately lifted England from the gloom and failure of Joe Root’s captaincy. Stokes showed at once that he had an extraordinary instinct for the job. It was this that marked him out from his fellow superstar allrounders, Ian Botham and ‘Freddie’ Flintoff.
He appeared to strike up a sublime partnership with the head coach, Brendon McCullum, also from New Zealand. The same players who had been unable to help Root bought into the immediately refreshing free-range game that McCullum and Stokes orchestrated. New Zealand and South Africa were well beaten at home as England successfully completed some astonishing run chases in the fourth innings.
Pakistan were trounced in Pakistan, something England had never managed before. The future seemed certain and glorious. Then the hurdles grew higher; Australia came to England in 2023 and India followed in 2025, the two best sides in the world, and neither could be beaten. Stokes took his side to India where they were roundly beaten, and then came last winter’s humiliation in Australia, made worse by the high expectation of an England victory.
For all his earlier brilliance, this catastrophic series will always stand out to dent Stokes’s reputation as both captain and player and maybe ultimately to define him. Bazball, magnificent to a point, was found to be inadequate and foolish against the best. Stokes realised this, but too late, while McCullum’s faith in Bazball was never shaken. Both on the field and off a louche drinking, partying culture was never questioned and perhaps even encouraged.
Much will be written and speculated upon as far as McCullum and Stokes’s relationship is concerned. In the end, it appears to have disintegrated. The free-range side of life undoubtedly appeals to Stokes just as it did to Botham, Flintoff, Shane Warne and others of their exceptional, flamboyant natural ability. Maybe you cannot have one without the other. By the end of this Australian tour, Stokes was as bemused as anyone and has remained in a muddle as recent events have shown.
He will go down as a flawed genius of which there has been a long line in cricket, starting perhaps with the great W. G. Grace who got up to a number of questionable tricks in a sedate Victorian atmosphere. This has always been a part of the eternal fascination of cricket.
It may forever worry him why, as captain of England, it went so wrong in the end
Stokes may now spend a year or two enjoying county cricket with Durham, but I wonder if such an impulsive chap has any deep thought-out plans for the future. He will enjoy life along with those moments of self-doubt which have always plagued him and which have not helped over the last difficult year.
He may well score a few more hundreds and will surely visit a few more nightclubs. I first met him in the England dressing room at Lord’s in 2017 after my final day’s commentary; two days later we met again in an Annabel’s, a club in London’s Berkeley Square when he was there with the England side for a function. A few days later he was in another nightclub, in Bristol, where he got into trouble, although I happen to believe he was unlucky and the full story of that may never have come out.
Whatever happens, Stokes will continue to generate lots of fun while, I hope, keeping a watchful eye on the pitfalls that have always accompanied him. It may forever worry him why, as captain of England, it went so wrong in the end, but I hope it will not be too long before he will be able to shrug his shoulders in amiable resignation.
