Rediscovering The Spirit Of English Test Cricket: In Conversation With Ben Stokes
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Rediscovering The Spirit Of English Test Cricket: In Conversation With Ben Stokes

Having just taken the Test vice captaincy, Ben Stokes is hoping for a resurgence in the fortunes of English cricket. Here, we talk Alastair Cook, the 2005 Ashes series, and whether or not any England cricketers read VICE.

While Ben Stokes has achieved a fair amount in his first eight years of professional cricket, he will have had few months more eventful than this one. Not only has he been made vice captain of England's Test team, he has also broken the record for the Indian Super League's most expensive foreign player after signing for Rising Pune Supergiants for £1.7m. With India's lucrative Twenty20 tournament only lasting for six and a half weeks – this providing that the Supergiants get to the final on 21 May – that's a pay packet which would make a fair few Premier League footballers jealous. When it comes to Stokes' priorities, however, his wages are far from top of the agenda, with the future of Test cricket in England weighing heavy on his mind.

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Though England don't have another Test fixture to fulfil until well into the summer, with South Africa arriving on these shores in July, Stokes and his newly appointed captain Joe Root have a lot of work to do. As Stokes rather pointedly makes clear, at the moment much of the vice captaincy job consists of "answering questions about it," with media duties the first port of call. When asked whether anyone involved with England cricket reads VICE, Stokes hesitantly asks: "Do you want me to be honest?" When the reply comes emphatically in the affirmative, he says: "I'd never heard of it until I got an email about this interview." We can at least conclude that this publication is not causing England cricketers too many sleepless nights.

What might be causing Stokes and his teammates rather more by way of sleeplessness is anxiety over the health of English Test cricket, and worries about the recent performances of the England team. In their last outing under Alastair Cook, England suffered a 4-0 series whitewash on their tour of India, an outcome which motivated the oft-maligned Cook to resign his captaincy after four and a half years at the helm. The team have lost six of their last eight Tests, and been handed out some absolute drubbings in the process. More importantly, there seems to have been something of a lull in the national interest in Test cricket, while England are not attracting quite the same popular support they once were.

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India celebrate the dismissal of Alastair Cook during the Fifth Test of their recent series against England // PA Images

The waning of England's fortunes in Test cricket is unfortunate, especially given the surge in popularity of the Twenty20 format amongst spectators. Considering the remuneration he is about to receive to go and play in the IPL, Ben Stokes knows better than most that short-form cricket has become a thriving international brand. Meanwhile, ODI has suffered somewhat, being as it is the middle ground between the gaudy show of T20 and the relatively austere but venerable Test version of the game. Test cricket has tradition on its side, though those who prefer to play in five-day matches know that they can't rely on tradition alone to sustain the crowds.

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"I've said this before, but I think Test cricket is being put to the back of people's minds because of the other formats," Stokes says. "For us as players, though, Test cricket is the pinnacle of the game. We want people to know that we still think that and we want people to enjoy it as much as they do the other two formats, because we don't want Test cricket dying out as some people have been saying. That would be the worst possible thing for the game."

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While England have more immediate worries regarding their form, Stokes adds that the future of Test cricket is something that concerns him and his teammates. "I know that everyone who has played Test cricket – and who wants to play Test cricket, even if they haven't already – still wants that opportunity. Playing in Test matches, playing in the Ashes, playing against India, these are all massive occasions for us. We want to experience them, we want them to be the same and – in 20, 30 years time, when we're not playing anymore – we want the kids that we hopefully inspire to go on and play for England to get the same feeling that we do now."

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He may only just have begun his stint as England vice captain, but there's clearly a sense in which Stokes is already considering his and Joe Root's legacy in the game. Having played under Alastair Cook for the past few years, it is little surprise that legacy is a subject of interest to them. While Cook was a record-breaking batsman and by all accounts well respected by the majority of his teammates, he was often the focus of intense criticism and scrutiny, not least by the clamorous and pompous populists who rallied against him in the aftermath of Kevin Pietersen's sacking in 2014. Though Pietersen was a far more divisive figure, there were many who preferred his swashbuckling approach to Cook's generally guarded style.

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That said, Cook led England to Ashes victory in 2013 and 2015, as well as impressive series wins in India and South Africa during his captaincy. He has a record number of Test runs for England with a whopping 11,057, while he also has also recorded the most Test centuries for his country with 30 tonnes to date. Though he looks set to continue as England's opening batsman, some would argue that he has been forced to relinquish the captaincy too soon, that despite England's recent thrashing in India. While Stokes is naturally looking forward to presiding over the team alongside Cook's successor, he certainly seems to feel that their predecessor's work has been underestimated at times.

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"When he retires from international cricket, clearly there's going to be a lot said about his batting record for England, about the fact he's scored over 10,000 runs," Stokes says of his former skipper. "Then, afterwards, his captaincy will come into it, and his time as captain will be remembered as very, very good. People will obviously criticise us because we've gone and got beaten 4-0 in India, but some will forget about what Cooky has done before that, which is frustrating for the players who have played under him and know what he's all about as a captain. When he comes to retire, then people will come to understand and appreciate what he's actually done for English cricket. It's a shame really that it will probably take him retiring for people to finally understand that."

Stokes and Cook celebrate a wicket against India together // PA Images

If there's one criticism which can be fairly levelled at the Cook era, it's that English Test cricket seems to have further drifted away from the national zeitgeist. That might have something to do with Cook as a character, or at least his conventional presentation by the media, with much made of his private school background and the fact that Giles Clarke, former chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, once excruciatingly referred to his family as "the right sort of people." This sort of thing was a far cry from a hammered Freddie Flintoff going out to sea in a pedalo at the 2007 World Cup, an incident which only served to further the popular legend of that beloved generation of England Test cricketers. To some extent, the team's changing image has been out of Cook's hands, but the drifting of the national interest – and how to recover it – is still something for Stokes and Root to consider.

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"Obviously when we think back to the 2005 Ashes series, we'd love to be able to do something like that," Stokes says. When asked how England might recapture some of the spirit of that famous series – in which England beat their Australian nemeses to the urn for the first time since 1987 – he has a fairly emphatic response. "Going and beating Australia, in Australia, at the end of the summer," he declares, speaking with particular relish. When it comes to English Test cricket, success is inevitably measured by winning performances against the Baggy Greens.

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In terms of the actual of cricket, Stokes admits that he wants things to be more exciting with England, even if he and Joe Root aren't planning any fundamental changes to their approach. "Nothing is going to change in the way I go about my cricket, or anything like that," Stokes says of the responsibilities of vice captaincy. Regarding their strategic outlook, it seems as if it will be more a case of evolution than revolution. "The way that we have been playing under Cooky is something that me and Joe want to continue with, though obviously Rooty is now captain so it's going to be up to him. Still, we're basically looking to carry that on, play to win, and play in a manner that makes people want to come and watch us."

While there are several months before fans will see whether Root and Stokes can turn intent into action for England, there certainly seems to be an ambition about them which should hopefully stand Test cricket in good stead. With Cook still around to mentor and advise the duo, they will have plenty of experience to draw on when South Africa rock up in July. More than that, Root will have a determined and purposeful right-hand man alongside him with an expansive vision for the long-form game. In Stokes' own words: "I think I can help Joe in a lot of different ways. I'm not just there to be vice captain and live off those words or that phrase, if you know what I mean."

To find out more on Ben Stokes, go to RedBull.com

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