Among Ben Stokes’ strengths as England captain has been his capacity to show the way. At the start of his tenure, as he sought his team to forge a new, ultra-attacking style with the bat, it was Stokes who led the charge with as cavalier an approach as any.
When, during the Ashes, Stokes urged his teammates to “show some dog”, it was he who first abandoned those long-held principles with a blockathon in Brisbane. Good captains have a mantra of never asking a player to do anything you wouldn’t do yourself. As the make-up of the squad has changed, that ability to set an example has become all the more important.
open image in galleryIn that context, and with the backdrop of all that happened in Australia, the news that broke on Monday evening is scarcely believable. After a first Test win over New Zealand to somewhat cleanse the palate following the sour taste of an Ashes defeat, it would seem that Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson visited a Chelsea nightclub at which there was an altercation also involving a member of the Saracens academy.
Details remain scant, but it would appear that neither Stokes nor Atkinson were the aggressor in the incident in that question. That may not, and perhaps should not, matter; they have breached team curfew and put themselves in the most risky of situations.
open image in galleryAhead of the first Test, in an in-house interview with the ECB, Brendon McCullum warned his players to banish the off-field mistakes of the Ashes. “Nothing good ever happens after midnight, and don’t do anything that lands you on the front page of the paper,” the England head coach cautioned – a warning his captain, it seems, has failed to heed.
It feels an act of staggering stupidity after a winter in which you and your bosses have been forced, at length, to deny accusations of a drinking culture and a set-up that allows its players too much freedom. The introduction of a curfew was itself a sign of an environment perhaps not functioning as it should, but came after it emerged that Harry Brook, Stokes’ vice-captain, had been involved in a fracas with a nightclub bouncer in Wellington the night before he had been due to skipper England in a one-day international (ODI). Brook was fined thousands of pounds and given a stern censure.
open image in galleryThere is a certain irony in the fact that Brook is now in line to step in should Stokes, as is expected, be dropped from the second Test squad, and perhaps relinquish the captaincy altogether. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are investigating the incident but their statement on Monday very much hinted that neither the current captain nor Atkinson will be named in a squad due to be released early this week. The investigation will have to run its course but it would be sensible, regardless of the outcome, to take the pair out of the public eye.
For while as an isolated incident, this could be brushed over as a small lapse of judgement and unfortunate scenario, the ECB have a right to be furious that it has transpired. Reports that a punch thrown by the Saracens academy player hit an ECB security officer who was supervising Stokes and Atkinson, and that the security officer then required stitches, adds another potential wrinkle.
In the wake of the Ashes, the ECB had backed McCullum, Stokes and the rest of the hierarchy on a change manifesto; a vow that things would be different, on and off the field. That promise has been broken at virtually the earliest opportunity.
Of course, players have a right to celebrate a success like that achieved at Lord’s, but the embarrassment caused by an incident like this will only further fray already threadbare connections with a public losing their love of this team. Once again, the focus is taken off of the cricket and on to the culture – which again appears to have come up short.
There is some sympathy to be felt for Stokes in all of this. As a leader, he has had to shoulder a remarkable burden over the last four years, speaking often not just for himself but his team and his sport. The all-rounder, who turned 35 during the Lord’s Test, will have been hit hard by the events of the winter and has faced a disrupted start to the year, with his return from a groin problem delayed by a nasty facial injury suffered while bowling in the nets at Durham.
The example he set Down Under was positive, even if other members of the team could not say the same. He had given up alcohol last year during his recovery from hamstring surgery as he sought to be fully fit for a real tilt at Australia. He was; his team was not.
open image in galleryWhile it is right that he faces punishment, and it is difficult to see him remaining skipper, there will be a duty of care to him as well. In 2021, Stokes stepped away from cricket to prioritise his mental well-being, processing the death of his father and the saga relating to an incident outside a Bristol nightclub, in which he was acquitted on a charge of affray but punished by the ECB for bringing the game into disrepute.
He has, broadly, been a force for real good as England captain, and it would be a shame to see it end under such circumstances, but this latest misstep may have left England with little choice.