England captain Ben Stokes has declared he will retire from international cricket at the end of the current Test against New Zealand following a contentious year.
Stokes, who was suspended for the second Test of the current series after breaking curfew following England’s triumph earlier this month, told his teammates before play resumed in a match being played at Trent Bridge on Sunday.
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The star all-rounder made his pending retirement public shortly before tea in what is the deciding Test of a series currently tied at 1-all.
The revelation drew a standing ovation from the crowd in attendance at Trent Bridge and patrons will receive free entry to the final day of the Test on Monday.
“The reasons can wait, why, but I’ve had many trips to the well before for this team, for you blokes, for people beforehand and I’ve got one more trip to do,” he told his teammates.
“The only thing that I ask, please, is can everyone do the same. We’ve got a lot of hard work to do and the only thing I want is to be able to walk off that field, regardless of the result, knowing that I’ve had this group give everything for the last two days.
“That’s the only thing I want, for everyone to give it not only for me, selfishly, but also for this team. I’ve got the emotional side out of it. Now it’s time to go to work. Please, everyone else come with me.”
Stokes later added on Sky Sports: “It might sound quite selfish but this decision is genuinely the best thing for me right now.
“I hope it’s the best thing for the team going forward but I also hope it’s what will allow me to keep loving this game that has given me so much.”
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Stokes is in danger of ending his tenure as the captain of an English side beaten by New Zealand on home soil, for the hosts needed another 270 runs to win the series with only six wickets in hand.
In a surprising move, the all-rounder opened the batting late on Day 4 and made a rapid 30 off just 20 balls before losing his wicket.
The 35-year-old, who led England to a 4-1 loss in last summer’s disastrous Ashes tour of Australia, was reportedly considering his future after the furore that unfolded following the first Test.
But after England suffered a heavy defeat at The Oval under former skipper Joe Root, he returned to the squad for this week’s match.
Playing in his 122nd Test match, he snared a wicket shortly after it became public his 15-year red ball career was about to finish.
Stokes, who had served as England’s captain for four years, did not rule out the prospect this could be his final match when quizzed in a pre-Test press conference last week.
“The England captaincy is one of those things where I’m 35 now and, even before this stuff all happened, I thought, ‘Could I ever see myself playing for England and not being captain?’” he told the BBC prior to the match.
“It’s a question I’ve never really been able to answer, because it’s been such a big part of this part of my career.
“You look at others who have stepped away from captaincy and kept playing – I don’t really know. I love playing for England. I love being captain of this team and that’s where I’m at with everything.”
It remains a stunning development and comes just a year prior to England hosting Australia in the Ashes on home soil.
Wisden’s leading cricketer of the year in 2019, 2020 and 2022, Stokes was a key contributor to England’s triumph in the home World Cup in 2019 when making 84 against the Kiwis in one of the best white-ball games ever played.
He subsequently led the English team through a resurgent ‘Bazball’ era in partnership with coach Brendon McCullum.
But the cavalier approach to cricket came unstuck on Australian soil despite the hosts being without champions Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon for much of the summer.
It prompted a review of England’s leadership hierarchy but ultimately Stokes and the key architects of the Bazball period held their positions.
“It’s an extraordinary moment, a stunning moment, and it begs a number of questions — why and why now?” former England captain Michael Atherton told Sky Sports of Stokes retirement.
“In the middle of a day’s cricket with still a day to go with a match to win, draw or lose and a series on the line.”
Another former England captain, Michael Vaughan, also weighed in on the snap timing.
“Clearly something has triggered in his mind,” Vaughan told the BBC.
“You look at his contract that he’s got until next year – there’s a home Ashes series next year.
“There were so many rumours about fallouts but I do hope that wasn’t the case, I hope that he just woke up one morning and said he’d had enough. He’s given it everything for such a long period of time.”
Atherton lauded Stokes’ contribution as skipper and related to the burden he had carried.
“He’s been an outstanding England captain throughout that journey,” he said.
“The first couple of years, it was a transformation the likes of which few of us have seen of a sporting a team.
“It hasn’t gone to plan in the last year. And I have to say, we were there at Lord’s, and those of us who’ve been in that job recognised that he’d come to the end of the road.
“He looked like a man who’d been captain of England for four years. A lot of us did it for about that time. It is a wearing job, one that gets on top of you and that you can’t let go.”
Stokes is considered one of the best all-rounders to play Test cricket, as demonstrated by his 7243 runs and 251 wickets leading into this Test.
West Indian icon Sir Garfield Sobers and South Africa’s Jacques Kallis are the only two other men to have achieved such a double, and the 136 sixes Stokes smashed in Test cricket is also a record.
“I’m pretty happy and content with everything I’ve managed to do,” Stokes added on Sky Sports.
“I’m an Ashes winner, I’ve won a 50-over World Cup, a T20 World Cup.
“I’ve also had the opportunity to captain the team and play alongside some of the best players to have played the game. There’s not too much I can complain about, really.”
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