Comments on: Ben Stokes is managing https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/ben-stokes-is-managing/2022/07/18/ Independent and irreverent cricket writing Wed, 20 Jul 2022 10:53:40 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.3 By: King Cricket https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/ben-stokes-is-managing/2022/07/18/#comment-269978 Wed, 20 Jul 2022 10:53:40 +0000 https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/?p=27319#comment-269978 In reply to Deep Cower.

We’d say he’s gone for a combination of cachet and money. Tests for the former, T20s for the latter, deeming ODIs the lukewarm water in the middle.

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By: Deep Cower https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/ben-stokes-is-managing/2022/07/18/#comment-269977 Wed, 20 Jul 2022 10:47:02 +0000 https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/?p=27319#comment-269977 In reply to Bert.

If the average person were given two choices, I assume the vast majority will make a decision based on two factors:

1. Which one of these am I really good at?
2. Which one gets me more money?

Admittedly Stokes isn’t the average man and doesn’t need to worry too much about #2 as either option would ensure he’ll retire wealthy. Of course, motivational gurus like Steve Jobs might urge you to “follow your passion” – if your passion is something you’re really good at, this makes sense. Otherwise it’s a rather shitty option. Thus, Stokes should have asked himself in which format would he be indispensable for England. Let’s be honest: England won the last few test matches because Bairstow decided to treat visiting teams with the love and warmth Joseph Stalin reserved for his friends. Stokes will not be missed in T20s either because pretty much no one will be missed in T20s – it’s a format where anyone in the eleven can win the game for you. Arguably the format Stokes is best at is the ODIs. I do agree that ODIs might not have much of a future except for the World Cup thing but they’re going to be around for the next decade or so at least. And it’s the one format where Stokes can be the game changer for England. This is a puzzling decision.

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By: Bert https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/ben-stokes-is-managing/2022/07/18/#comment-269976 Wed, 20 Jul 2022 10:11:11 +0000 https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/?p=27319#comment-269976 So if you are Ben Stokes (I’m assuming that at most only one of you is), and you need to cut down a little, your choice is based on… what?

1. What you enjoy most (or least)
2. What pays best (or worst)
3. What you think has a future (or doesn’t)
4. What gives you a wide profile (or doesn’t)

I can’t speak for the first of these (maybe one of you can), but to me ODIs is last #2, probably last in #3. As for #4, the test captain is still someone that can be named by people who aren’t cricket fans, and T20 has developed a following all of its own. ODIs are a bit Bob Cunis – they’re too short for the test crowd and too long for the T20 crowd. They seem to rely on fans from both ends saying , “Yeh, why not, there’s nothing else on TV”. Is there such a thing as an ODI fan? Specifically, I mean, as in one that dislikes tests and T20.

The exception to this is a strange and rare thing that I will call TWCWEGTTF. This stands for The World Cup When England Get To The Final. Suddenly, ODI cricket is all that anyone cares about in the whole of England, cricket fans or not. As Stokes found out, playing in TWCWEGTTF gives you your greatest ever career moment. That he replaced it with a greatest ever career moment five weeks later doesn’t change this. Even without Headingly, by the end of 2019 Stokes would have been a household name – put there by ODI cricket.

The next opportunity for TWCWEGTTF is November 2023. Maybe Stokes has concluded that profile-widening is now unnecessary, or that the chance of TWCWEGTTF is remote. Or maybe it’s got nothing to do with this, and that he is just picking the versions he enjoys and that pay him well. No shame in that.

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By: Aditya https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/ben-stokes-is-managing/2022/07/18/#comment-269975 Wed, 20 Jul 2022 07:15:11 +0000 https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/?p=27319#comment-269975 In reply to King Cricket.

Good point

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By: A P Webster https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/ben-stokes-is-managing/2022/07/18/#comment-269972 Wed, 20 Jul 2022 06:58:27 +0000 https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/?p=27319#comment-269972 In reply to King Cricket.

I have a long-standing ‘gentlemen’s wager’ that Tests will outlive 50-over ODIs, I still feel pretty confident in that, at least in the men’s game.

But that’s mainly based on the continuing interest in Tests from fans in England and Australia in particular. If the balance of power/wealth shifts within the ICC (eg if some ‘new’ nations develop large cricketing audiences and ‘media markets’, perhaps off the back of T20 being included in the Olympics or the emergence of some incredibly talented players from non-Test-playing countries) then that could change… although I think the fact that the T20 and 50-over formats (let alone the Hundred) are insufficiently differentiated from each other is probably going to lead to Tests still having a ‘special’ status.

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By: King Cricket https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/ben-stokes-is-managing/2022/07/18/#comment-269971 Wed, 20 Jul 2022 06:45:59 +0000 https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/?p=27319#comment-269971 In reply to Aditya.

Time.

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By: Aditya https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/ben-stokes-is-managing/2022/07/18/#comment-269970 Wed, 20 Jul 2022 05:23:17 +0000 https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/?p=27319#comment-269970 Didn’t KP also want to retire from ODI cricket (but not T20) but wasn’t allowed to by the ECB? What’s the difference here?

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By: Deep Cower https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/ben-stokes-is-managing/2022/07/18/#comment-269969 Wed, 20 Jul 2022 04:19:08 +0000 https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/?p=27319#comment-269969 Good on Stokes and I wish him the best, but I am not at all sure it’s all that wise to cut yourself off from one format completely. Imagine someone doesn’t play ODIs and T20s and concentrates only on tests (not that it applies here) – it sure is possible he succeeds (like Pujara) but lack of practice at the highest level is a serious thing. The volume of test matches by itself might not be sufficient to guarantee that you’re in top form year round. Most teams these days land up in another country, play a cursory 4 day game against a local team (if they have that luxury) and get things started. If the last test series you played was 2 months ago against a much weaker opposition, I am not sure it’s hugely helpful. It is strange to see someone like Stokes who is a naturally gifted ODI player to relinquish the format. The English test team is in a honeymoon phase now, but once it ends, the lack of fallback options might worry Stokes. I hope I am wrong, but my guess is six months from now, ECB and Stokes will probably wake up to the fact that they made a pig’s breakfast of the entire thing.

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By: Disilusioned https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/ben-stokes-is-managing/2022/07/18/#comment-269968 Wed, 20 Jul 2022 00:57:44 +0000 https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/?p=27319#comment-269968 Here’s another valid viewpoint…

https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/62224133

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By: King Cricket https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/ben-stokes-is-managing/2022/07/18/#comment-269967 Tue, 19 Jul 2022 21:52:15 +0000 https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/?p=27319#comment-269967 In reply to King Cricket.

Someone should write a five-part dystopian short story about that for Cricinfo.

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