Cricket
Ben Stokes: England’s thrilling talisman
England’s all-rounder gives us an insight into his glittering career.
Ben Stokes is one of the most exciting cricket players to ever don an England shirt. An explosive batsman, who in January 2016 knocked a spectacular 258 against South Africa in Cape Town, Stokes is equally adept with the ball, recording best Test bowling figures of 6/36. Pretty good fielder too…
Despite his tender age – Stokes turned 25 in June of this year – the New Zealand-born cricketer has just brought out his autobiography, entitled Firestarter: Me, Cricket and the Heat of the Moment, ahead of England’s winter tour to Bangladesh and India, where he’ll be looking to help England maintain their impressive run of form in 2016.
RedBull.com caught up with Ben at his county team Durham’s home ground to talk about his career to-date and discover his path to becoming one of England’s standout players.
OK Ben, let’s start at the beginning. How did you get into playing cricket?
Well, it wasn’t just cricket by itself, I was always around a lot of sports. My Dad was a professional rugby league player turned professional rugby league coach [former New Zealand international Ged Stokes]. My Mum was actually the cricketer in the family, so if I wasn’t around the rugby park watching my Dad’s team play, I’d be down at the cricket ground.
It became properly serious when I got to 12, 13; I started playing it a bit more seriously and the competitiveness started to come out. It helped being at a good school for cricket in Cockermouth, and my club team was pretty much the same team as at school, so we did well at that too.
Relaxing in Durham's nets
© Richie Hopson/Red Bull Content Pool
So what was your progress into the England side?
I played all my club cricket at Cockermouth, then played Cumbria age group stuff, under-13s, 14s and 15s. Then I got picked by Durham Junior Academy to go on a two-week trip to Dubai, then signed an Academy contract when I got back for the summer. I did three or four years in the Academy before I signed a professional contract when I was 18. Then I started playing for the first team and got picked for England in my second year. I was in and out of the team for the first 12 to 14 months, but over the last couple of years I’ve been a constant feature in the team, which is pretty pleasing.
You’re a bit of a quirk in that you’re a batsman and a bowler, but you bowl right-handed and bat left-handed. Was that a weird thing to discover when you were young?
All the pictures I’ve seen of me when I was younger, I was always batting left-handed and bowling right-handed. It’s not quite as strange as when people bowl with their left and throw with their right – I can’t get my head around how that works. But there’s quite a few like me: Jimmy Anderson bowls right-handed, bats left-handed but plays golf right-handed. That’s bizarre.
Ben checks over his weapon
© Richie Hopson/Red Bull Content Pool
Talk to us about your famous 258-run innings at Cape Town. Was that a watershed moment in your career?
It was a strange one. Everything happened that I needed to happen and wanted to happen. The ball went in the gaps where the fielders weren’t and everything that I wanted to do was just working. It was a once-in-a-lifetime innings. A little bit of fortune as well, but I just reached a point where I was trying to hit every ball for four or six – and it happened. I’ll probably never play like that again.
On the other side of the coin, can we also talk about the infamous locker incident in Barbados in 2014? [Ben broke his wrist after punching a metal locker during England’s One Day International tour of the West Indies]
It was a complete blow-up at the end of a really rubbish tour in terms of personal performances – especially considering my first big tour for England in Australia went well. It was just a build up of frustration at not performing, which is something I always want to be doing. So the last game of the tour, I got a first ball duck, which ended the tour on a bad note. I walked up the stairs to the changing room and boom, I just went off and broke my wrist.
[Apparently Ben now takes his anger out on his pads instead – Ed.]
Ben bowls right-arm fast-medium
© Richie Hopson/Red Bull Content Pool
So the Bangladesh and India tour is coming up. Are you in a good frame of mind for that?
Obviously as a team we’ve been really successful in all forms of the game over the past two years. It’s going to be challenging going to subcontinent conditions where we know that they’re very good, but we’re just going to have to train as well as we possibly can and make sure our build-up period towards those tours is as good as it can be. Then we’ve got to make sure we don’t surprise ourselves when we get out there by how much the ball is going to spin.
We’ve heard that they develop their wickets to favour the spinners over there…
They definitely do. The seamers bowl seven overs and then the spinners come straight on. But we know what we’re in for so our practice is going to have to revolve around what we think we’re going to be faced with.
Ben Stokes has become one of England's top players
© Richie Hopson/Red Bull Content Pool
So you’re an all-rounder. But if you had to pick one out of batting and bowling for the rest of your career, what would you choose?
I couldn’t pick that. Well actually batting, to preserve my body.
I’ve read my book back and I actually quite enjoyed it
Despite being a young player, you’ve got an autobiography out. How did that come about?
The publisher approached my agent, [ex-England cricketer] Neil Fairbrother. I was 24 when they asked and I did think, ‘Book already? I don’t know what to think about that’. But then it became a book about my growing up, not just cricket; there’s all the baby stories, what I got up to at school, when I played rugby as well as cricket. So it’s not just a book about cricket, it’s also about things off the field, times that I’ve been in trouble – which was quite a lot when I was about 18. Actually, sitting down and doing the sessions with the writer, Richard Gibson, was good; I really enjoyed telling him what I’d gone through. I’ve read it back and I actually quite enjoyed reading it myself. There’s a few funny stories in there, a few stories that people wouldn’t know, not even my Mum and Dad. They’re going to have a shock when they read it.
Executing a perfect cover drive in the nets
© Richie Hopson/Red Bull Content Pool
You’re a father to two kids. How do you find being a dad with the touring commitments you have?
For long tours, the ECB are very good at giving us slots for the families to come out and visit. For the India/Bangladesh tour, we leave at the end of September and then we’re back on December 21 for Christmas, then we head back out and are away for three more months. It does get tough but I’ve been used to being away by myself since I was young, with my Mum and Dad living in Cumbria and me being in Durham in the summer playing cricket. And then they moved back to New Zealand three years ago. The longest I’ve spent away from the kids was six weeks, which isn’t that bad for someone who’s used to being away.
And apparently your missus prefers it when you’re away…
Yep, she does. She says I’m hard work when I’m back home!
