Ben Stokes’ role as England captain was part of an ECB review following the recent Ashes debacle, as were the futures of head coach Brendon McCullum and managing director Rob Key
Ben Stokes will stay on as England Test captain(Image: Philip Brown/Getty Images)
A defiant Ben Stokes issued an expletive-laden statement after it was confirmed that he’d remain as England Test captain. Stokes, 34, led England to a humiliating 4-1 defeat in the recent Ashes, losing the first three Tests to rivals Australia in just 11 days of play.
Despite a raft problems on and off the field over the winter, Stokes will remain in his position, as will head coach Brendon McCullum and managing director Rob Key. It follows an ECB review which was concluded last week.
On Monday, Stokes took to Instagram to post an impassioned message, admitting that time since the Ashes has been ‘without a doubt been the hardest period of his captaincy’. “Dear England Cricket supporters and fans,” he began. “Being England captain is the greatest honour a player can be given and I do not take it for granted.
“It has its highs and it has its lows, it makes you want to smile it makes you want to cry. It completely and utterly consumes you and feels like it’s the only thing in your life at times. The last 3 months has without a doubt been the hardest period of my captaincy journey, it’s tested me in so many different ways and I’m sure every other captain has gone through this as well.
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“Baz, Rob and myself have the passion and desire to take this team forward, we are going to give you everything we have, we know we made mistakes along the way and we have learnt from those mistakes, you learn more from failure than success. I have learnt a lot about myself but the most important thing that I want the fans to know is that….“I F*****G love cricket, I F*****G love this team, I F*****G love being England captain and I have got so much more to give to this role and I’m so happy that I get to do it with Baz and Rob. We all appreciate every single person who supports us.
“We do what we do for many reasons but one of those reasons is to bring our supporters and fans happiness and and a sense of pride and we will aim to do those things as much as we can in the future. See you all in June for the start of the Test Match summer. Stokesy.”
Do you agree with the ECB’s decisions? Have your say in the comments section.
The ECB also moved to deny a bust-up between McCullum and Stokes, who’ve worked together as head coach and captain since 2022, but appeared to disagree on England’s style of play during the Ashes. “Ben’s probably slightly more conservative than Brendon, that’s fine,” Key told the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t agree, in fact you don’t want people to agree all the time. So, I don’t mind that at all. As long as, fundamentally, you’re pretty clear on what style of cricketer that you want. You want players that can still be aggressive, still play the best bowlers in the world, but actually are ruthless in how they go about it and are smart in the decisions they make.”
This summer, England will host New Zealand (June) and Pakistan (August and September) for three Test matches each.
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