Cricket
How I became pro: Ben Stokes
At just 29, he's one of England's greatest ever players. But where did Stokes' rise to stardom all begin?
Ben Stokes could retire tomorrow with a cricketing CV that would be the envy of most fellow pros. And he's only 29. The explosive all-rounder has been playing club cricket for Durham for over a decade, and he’s been an almost constant, always box-office member of the England squad since his international debut in 2011.
But where did Stokes' rise to stardom all begin?
“Pretty much as soon as I could walk, I was swinging a bat,” says Stokes, fielding questions during a Red Bull film shoot. Born in New Zealand, where he lived until the age of 12, Stokes’ sportsmanship was inspired by both of his parents. His love for cricket came from his mum, who used to play cricket competitively, while his father, Ged Stokes, was a professional rugby league player.
By the time the family moved to Cumbria in 2004, there was no denying Stokes’ talent, and he soon put his skills to good use with Cumbria and Cockermouth Cricket Club, where he got his first taste of success. “We won the league when I was 13 or 14,” he says. “There wasn’t loads for a young lad to do in Cumbria, so I lived for cricket.”
Even as a young boy, Ben loved to play cricket
© Ben Stokes
Ben and his mum, Deborah Stokes, who used to play cricket for New Zealand
© Ben Stokes
Before too long, Stokes’ focus and unquestionable ability earned him recognition beyond the Cumbrian border, and Durham came calling. “I can’t really remember what age I was when I thought, 'I’m going to give this a proper go'," he says, “but once I signed a Durham academy contract, that’s definitely when things started to become more serious in terms of trying to make a career in cricket.”
Stokes credits his dad, Ged, for much of his drive and dedication
© Ben Stokes
Fatherly advice
In those early years at Durham – the club he’s been at ever since – his father's sporting experience proved invaluable. “When I used to do the summers in Durham for the cricket and the winter back home, my dad was the one who encouraged me to go to the gym and make sure I stayed fit,” he says, “because at 17 and 18 that’s not really top of your agenda – you want to be hanging out with your mates. For those two years, he’s the one who made sure I was looking after myself and doing the right things. I’m really grateful for my dad during that time.”
Once I signed a Durham academy contract, that’s definitely when things started to become more serious in terms of trying to make a career in cricket
Durham, too, must have been grateful for Ged Stokes’ guidance, because after his son made his senior debut in 2009, his impact was emphatic. In his first full season in 2010, Stokes made 740 runs at an average of 46; enough to earn an England Lions call-up for the Under-19 World Cup. He justified that selection with a century against India, and in 2011, just five years after playing in the North Lancashire & Cumbria Cricket League Premier Division, he was called up to the senior national side.
Ben has been playing cricket for Durham for over a decade
© Ben Stokes
Off-field issues
So far, so good, but if his career up to that first England cap – a One-Day International (ODI) against Ireland – had been plain sailing, there would be no shortage of choppy waters ahead. Anyone who’s followed Stokes’ career (and even many who haven’t), will know it’s not been without a certain amount of drama.
In 2012, a missed team curfew – combined with various injuries – saw him sent home from an England Lions tour, and he was overlooked for national duty for the rest of the year. Stokes, though, is not one to dwell on the negatives. “If you’re not playing for England,” he says, “you’ve still got a busy summer, because you’re playing for your county. When you’re playing county cricket, you’re here, there and everywhere, so regardless of whether I’m playing for Durham or England, I’m never twiddling my thumbs! And 2012 was actually a great year in many ways because we won the Championship.”
That club form didn’t go unnoticed, and in 2013 Stokes was given the chance to put a patchy year behind him when he was selected for the 2013 Ashes series down under. “After the Ashes in 2005 [widely regarded as the greatest Test series ever], that elevated the competition to another level,” Stokes says. “It captured everyone’s imagination – I was 13 or 14 at the time, and when you’re into cricket and you see something like that going on, it makes you hungry to experience that kind of victory.”
Unfortunately, there would be no repeat performance in Stokes’ debut Ashes series, as England slumped to a crushing 5-0 defeat. Personally, though, he emerged from the series as one of England’s better players, and while others might wilt after such an experience, Stokes adopted a typically constructive approach. “You never want it easy to start with,” he says, “and while that was obviously a very hard defeat to deal with, it made me realise that international cricket is very tough. I would rather have it that way than breezing my first few Tests and thinking, wrongly, that international cricket is easy.”
But the tough lessons, in an England shirt at least, didn’t end there. In 2014, after a disappointing final-day performance during England’s tour of the West Indies, an incident involving Stokes’ hand and an unforgiving locker left him with an injury that ruled him out of both the T20 World Cup and England’s tour of India and Sri Lanka.
Then, of course, came the altercation outside a Bristol nightclub in late September 2017. The cricketer was charged with affray and subsequently acquitted in August 2019. Fortunately, the verdict left him free to continue his career.
I’m not going to suddenly be an angel, because that’s not me. It’s just about trying to make better decisions
Speaking to The Red Bulletin, Stokes was keen to stress that, while he had emerged from the incident a wiser man, it wasn't going to completely change him as a person. “I’m not going to suddenly be an angel, because that’s not me,” Stokes says. “It’s just about trying to make better decisions."
He also revealed that his time away from the sport made him realise the people who are most important to him, telling The Red Bulletin: "What I have learnt is that the people I need – who are important to what I do and who I want to be there – are around me. Before [you’ve learnt that], you try to please everyone, but you just can’t do it. There are other lessons, obviously, but that’s the main thing. It has made me understand who the right people are, and who I need in my life."
The England cricketer has had to learn some tough lessons in the public eye
© Greg Coleman / Red Bull Content Pool
Competitive nature
If at times he has been guilty of letting tempers boil over, there is an argument though to say such high emotions have helped Stokes rise to the top of the game. “I’m passionate about things that mean a lot to me,” he says. “Cricket is obviously one of those passions and I always have the attitude of never wanting to lose.”
All professional athletes possess a certain winning mentality, but there’s a sense that Stokes’ competitiveness – his unfaltering desire to win – is particularly acute: “I’ve always wanted to win, and that’s something that hasn’t changed from messing about in a field with my mates to playing for England. I’m trying to teach my son at the moment that it’s not all about winning, but I’m finding that quite a hard lesson to teach! As a cricketer, the day I stop thinking like that is the day I need to stop playing.”
While that mentality occasionally landed him in hot water at the beginning of his international career, he has since become one of England’s most exciting and dependable performers.
An injury-hit 2014 was followed by a year in which Stokes helped England to regain the Ashes, before hitting a career-best score of 258 on the winter tour of South Africa (the most runs ever recorded by a number six batsman). On regaining the Ashes, Stokes says the series included “some of the best moments” he’s experienced on a cricket pitch – even if the final match was devoid of drama: “It was quite bizarre because we knew we were going to win the Ashes on the morning of the game; we only needed two wickets. That was nice, because there wasn’t much pressure, and as soon as we got that last wicket, I remember jumping around and not really knowing what to do.” A rare moment of confusion in a career that, since then, has been characterised by clarity and calmness under pressure.
I’m trying to teach my son at the moment that it’s not all about winning, but I’m finding that quite a hard lesson to teach! As a cricketer, the day I stop thinking like that is the day I need to stop playing
In 2017, Stokes’ stand-out performances for club, and particularly for country – where he scored 299 runs and took seven wickets against South Africa in the lead-up to the Champions Trophy, and scored 228 runs, and took nine wickets, in a three-Test series against South Africa – earned him a big-money move to the Indian Premier League (IPL). Bought by the Rising Pune Supergiants for a cool £1.7 million, Stokes’ debut season in India could hardly have gone better: making his maiden century with 103 off just 63 balls, and receiving the Man of the Match award a record three times, before being bought by Rajasthan Royals in 2018.
“The IPL is different to anything else any cricketer will experience,” he explains. “It’s a great thing to be a part of and you definitely come back from it a better player because you’re playing against the best in the world. The way of life out there is completely different, and cricket is a religion. The love the locals have for the sport is amazing to see – people travel for hours just to watch a training session. It’s a great thing to be part of.”
"I always have the attitude of never wanting to lose"
© Ben Stokes
Ben celebrates England reclaiming the Ashes in 2015
© Ben Stokes
What pressure?
With his three playing duties – for England, Durham and the Rajasthan Royals – Stokes is under near-constant pressure to perform for team and country. But when it comes to knuckling down under immense pressure, you'd be hard-pressed to find a player more dependable.
And there's perhaps no better example of the all-rounder's obscene levels of composure than during the Cricket World Cup final against New Zealand last summer. Paired with Jos Buttler, Stokes brought England back into contention, after they'd plummeted to 86-4. When Buttler was dismissed for 59, all hopes were resting on Stokes. He dug in however and managed to score three stunning sixes, making the game a tie and taking England to a spectacular super over where they clinched the title. This Man of the Match performance undoubtedly cemented Stokes as one of England's greatest ever players.
And then came his series-saving heroics at the Ashes just five weeks later. During the third Test at Headingley, England were chasing down 359 to win the match – a feat that would be England's highest-ever successful run chase in Test cricket. Joined by last man Jack Leach, England still needed 73 runs, at which point, Stokes turned on his one-day style of play that saw him drag England to victory in the World Cup, hitting boundary after boundary, all while managing the strike and keeping Leach at the bowler's end. Eventually hitting Pat Cummins for four for the win, Stokes had done the seemingly impossible to keep his team in the series.
Ben lit up the third Test vs Australia in the 2019 Ashes
© Alex Davidson / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Getty
Such terrific batting displays saw Stokes win BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2019 – all while marking the summer of 2019 as one of the most iconic in cricket history.
Yet while Stokes' career is easily described with hyperbole, Stokes has firsthand experience of just how fleeting professional sport, particularly at the highest level, can be. As such, he's not one to get carried away: “I live in the moment with everything. You can’t afford to dwell on the past or look to the future too much. I’m aware that it could all be taken away from me at any moment – a few bad performances here and there can get you dropped from the team and you might never get back in – so I just try and take every day as it comes.”
To find out about how other Red Bull athletes made it to the top, head to the Red Bull Pro hub.