Ben Stokes, the 34-year-old captain of the England national cricket team, is calling for a little more understanding of players. Illustrating the very real struggles experienced over the Ashes series. What’s more, England is getting cleaned up, down 3-0 in the series. In response, Stokes encourages viewers to look back at his experiences and emphasize the crucial support of a team.
Stokes’ missed the 2017-18 Ashes tour after an altercation outside a Bristol night club which resulted in affray charges. Although the charges against him were later dropped, this incident has led to sustained costly attention at each step of his career. His leadership was hard to test, as it came under fire during his five-month hiatus from the sport during the summer of 2021. In doing so, he learned to put his mental health first.
Stokes voiced sympathy for his teammates feeling the heat. He pointed out that when losing, “everything you say, everything you do gets criticised, analysed, and rightly so.” This announcement further highlights the increased scrutiny that players are now subjected to when they go through rough patches.
The new England captain spoke to the controversy around opener Ben Duckett. Then, just days after his hire, a video surfaced on social media looking like Duckett was completely hammered, putting him in the eye of the storm. Stokes, for his part, labeled Duckett an “incredibly influential character” inside the contingent. He said he backed him up during operations.
A documentary that was released in August 2022 chronicles Stokes’s fight and determination. It exposes the unbearable burdens he’s been carrying both in and out of the game. He’s found that recruiting stories grounded in personal experience during those same times can help motivate players. “How you use this kind of stuff is you either let it get on top of you too much or you can use it as fuel if you want to use it as fuel,” Stokes stated.
Even in the worst conditions facing an Ashes series, Stokes is resolute in his desire to captain his team. He confidently promises that he will not avoid the pressure that comes with being made captain. He aims to tackle that test in this challenging stage. I’m not going to run away from it. From here on out, I’ll be your captain for the rest of this journey. I think all of us can make a wonderful journey through it,” he added.
Stokes will now come under extreme pressure, a pressure that greatly exceeds the outcome of the Ashes series. Each contest looms over his neck, the collective futures of team chief Rob Key and head coach Brendon McCullum, too. Stokes constantly assesses their own success. More than anything else, he’s focused on preventing that adverse environment from making every player not just “OK.”
“When you’re winning, it’s a lot easier to do stuff,” Stokes noted, highlighting how success often alleviates external pressures. He acknowledged the burden of expectations when the team is not doing well. “You don’t really have a leg to stand on when you are 3-0 down in a big series like this,” he added.
As Christmas nears, Stokes focuses in on developing that winning environment with his crew. He wants to ensure that the run continues with another fixture just down the road on Boxing Day. He expressed confidence that players will be ready to rise to the occasion: “Certain things inspire different people. Everyone’s heads will be in the game when we come back here on Boxing Day and everyone’s looking to get that win.”
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