Mike Jakeman
When the news of English cricket’s latest crisis first broke, it was tempting to laugh. It was as if reality had given way to satire. There was no faster or more comprehensive way to undermine months of earnest hand-wringing and contrition than for the captain to immediately bin off the new rules and go on a bender. Since then, the situation has become more emotionally complex. It remains fascinating, if that isn’t too ghoulish a word, to see cricket deal with a genuinely difficult problem where multiple truths exist simultaneously.
Here are a few things about Ben Stokes. He is a very good captain. His players enjoy his leadership. He was tactically out-thought by Steve Smith and Pat Cummins in Australia. He has enabled his players to take risks because they know he will take responsibility. His career has been interrupted by disciplinary problems. He signed off on the new team curfew. He is 35 years old. He has had to adapt the way he plays test cricket so that his battered body can cope with it. He immediately broke that curfew. He won England a World Cup. He said the aftermath of the Ashes series put him ‘in a dark place’. He suffered a horrendous facial injury in the nets in February. He led England to victory in their first test since the Ashes.
