Ben Stokes’ shock retirement is a sad day for English cricket – Michael Vaughan
I am really sad that Ben Stokes is going now. I have loved watching him give his heart and soul to English cricket.
Headingley 2019 was the greatest test innings I have seen. Nobody gave him a chance, it was the fourth innings and he had bowled a mammoth spell, but he kept his composure and his cool.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised. Great sportspeople like Stokes do keep us guessing and are wired differently. He was never going to retire normally or quietly.
He’s been an incredible figure in our sport and he has grabbed English cricket by the scruff of the neck, as a batter, bowler and captain. Everyone at Trent Bridge on Sunday will never forget it and fans were showing their appreciation for him. Not many cricketers get that kind of love.
As a batter, I can barely remember a player who handled the pressure of a chase so well. And with the ball, you just knew he would be absolutely ferocious. It was typical that the first ball after he announced his retirement was a wicket. That was Ian Botham-esque. They are extraordinary characters, and so rare.
Listening to Stokes talk afterwards, it is clear that he has just been drained by the game and the job. I get that. He spoke in his speech to the team about going back to the well.
He did so much for the team – batting, bowling, fielding, captaincy. It’s four disciplines, day in, day out. To train and play, it takes so much out of you. He is as mentally strong as anyone I have come across in the game, and has been through so much in his life. If he has run out of the energy for the job and the game, I understand, because he has given so much to it.
However, it does seem that the chaos of the last three weeks has been the final nail in the coffin. I would love to know what’s really happened behind the scenes over the last few weeks. Hearing him say that the reasons can wait hit me round the face. I wonder what it means – and maybe we will never know the reasons. I hope he’s okay after a really tumultuous time.
I can understand how he would feel a bit let down by people above him at the England and Wales Cricket Board in terms of their handling of the London nightclub saga, because it did seem like they made too much of something that was simply never a resignation or retirement issue.
Only Stokes can answer that, but I cannot believe that the last two weeks have not affected him or played a part in his decision. That for me is very sad.
English cricket did a good job of putting on a united front this week. But there was a fallout and they did not back a man of Stokes’ standing strongly enough. It must have played a part in him stepping away.
Only time will tell if the team can live without him, find a formula without an allrounder. In recent years when Stokes has not played, England have been completely unbalanced. Look at the mess of the Oval last week. They not only lack a fifth bowler and often have to go without a spinner, but they also lack his leadership and dog. No allrounder in English cricket is anywhere near his skillset and competitive nature.
It is not right that he is the only major change to this management team. He’s not responsible for English cricket not performing well enough.
I thought for a bit it was good fun watching him open on the fourth evening but suddenly the batting was crazy. England needed Harry Brook to face more than just nine balls if they were to win this very important test. He’s up there with the best batters in the world and he’s slogging.
I thought it was poor and it made me wonder if other big figures such as the coach, Brendon McCullum, is off too because it was like a greatest hits of Bazball’s maddest batting. Ben Duckett was the only one of the four wickets that was got out.
It’s been a cricket team who have not got results. Questions have to be asked of those making the calls and driving the team forward. We are not getting the results players of this talent should be.
The game is duller now. His team and the way he played and captained them have been so much fun to cover. I am not sure they have always been right but it’s been exciting and dramatic. They have given us special moments.
Any cricket team with Stokes in is worth watching. He has driven people to play and watch the game. He might not realise for a few years the impact he’s had on the game, people only playing cricket because of the way he batted in 2019.
One final thought: there will be plenty of people waking up in Australia this Monday morning and breathing a sigh of relief that they never have to face him again. He has always been the one England player Aussies would have loved in their side and the Ashes will be much harder to win back next year.
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