England’s Test captain and star all-rounder Ben Stokes revealed that he was thinking of walking away from one of the white-ball formats for a long time, and even made up his mind to make his decision public during the home ODIs against India in July 2022.
However, Stokes finally shocked the entire cricket world by announcing his retirement from ODI cricket last month, citing that playing in all three formats was no longer "sustainable" for him. He played his last ODI on July 19 against South Africa at his home turf in Durham.
Ben Stokes during a select media call organized by Amazon Prime Video: “It is a pretty tough decision but at the same time, it was made easy for me. I always had it at the back of my mind that I would have to you know, walk away from one of the white-ball formats. I just did not know which one, and I was not going to make a decision until I was clear in my mind which one it is going to be. You hear people say who have retired from many things, they say 'when you know, you know'.”
He continued, “So, it was after the first ODI against India at the Oval, which I finished that game, even on the evening of the game, it was my moment of 'when you know, you know'. Yeah, almost hit me in the face, just like that. As hard it was to know that I won't be playing this format anymore, it was also a decision that was almost made easy because of how quickly it hit me.”
On the changes he would like to see in ODI cricket, Stokes said: “Yeah, it is a great question at the moment with how much cricket is being played around the world. You know, the last thing anybody wants is to be there a format, I do not know, be taken away from people. Maybe there is a way, ICC can look at, maybe restructuring the schedule, maybe redoing the format. You look at England now with the Hundred, they are making a completely new format but that still goes alongside the T20 version.”
The all-rounder further added, “You know, something can be looked at, it is my own personal view, could they look at maybe turning 50 overs into 40 overs. I mean, when I first started playing professional cricket, there was that CB-40 and that was a really good format to play. Nowadays, it would just be an extended version of T20 cricket and I personally think you would end up seeing the same scores, anyway in 40 overs that you do in 50 overs.
Because there is so much cricket, is there a way that schedule and formats can be looked at to still keep the 3 formats, but maybe less cricket? If you look at 40 overs than 50 overs, I think that can be a solution. I think there needs to be a lot of thought put into it but the last thing you want I think for the sport, is that a certain format is completely chucked away.”
On the less tri-series nowadays in the calendar, the Test skipper said: “I got no idea. The thing that, people who organize these things need to look at what is the best way to get the best product out there and have the best players from every country to play every game possible in whatever format it is.
But at the moment, it does not seem to be that way, it seems to be series after series, series overlapping for teams. Just, for example, we had a Test series going on and then we had an ODI series going on at the same time. When you are scheduling cricket like that, it is obviously going to affect the product.”
Stokes signed off by saying, “It is understandable because cricket is almost playing catchup because of what happened with COVID. But I think it needs to be looked at now, a realistic point of view needs to be looked at, it is just not the game that is played, there is also travel and the time away from home.
Everything like that, the expectations that are put on multi-format players, when I was playing all 3 formats, 2015-16-17, it did not feel like then that you are going from one format straight into another. There is more cricket packed into a smaller window and unfortunately, I do not think that is sustainable for players or for the product you want to be giving out in international cricket.”
(With NDTV Inputs)
