Toxic month that proved Ben Stokes would never go out on ECB’s terms

As Ben Stokes spoke to broadcasters on the Trent Bridge outfield on Sunday evening, pockets of England fans who had stayed to show their appreciation to the retiring captain sang offensive chants about Rob Key and “f--- the ECB”.

For English cricket, June became the month from hell and ended with one of its favourite sons walking off into the sunset, broken by the weight of the captaincy and a row with his employers. They had hoped this month would be about the Bazballers burying the Ashes series with victory over New Zealand and the women’s team reaching the World Cup knockouts. The dream was to knock the football off the front pages. That happened – but in a nightmarish way.

If officials from the England and Wales Cricket Board had war-gamed “worst-case scenarios” after the Ashes tour, what unfolded would have been too apocalyptic to even consider. The Test captain broke the curfew at the first opportunity, had his mental state publicly questioned by the coach, then drove a railroad through the poorly codified new regulations before announcing his retirement mid-match as the team lost their first home Test series, of three or more matches, for 14 years in scenes that occasionally felt more like a testimonial than world-class sport, leaving fans angry.

That, however, is exactly where English cricket finds itself, almost a month after head coach Brendon McCullum was asked at the first of many press conferences: “Tell us, Baz, what does getting a ‘firmer grip’ on this team actually mean?”

The only person with a firm grip on the situation has been Stokes who, bar a 24-hour period in the immediate aftermath of his night out at the Rex Rooms, has dictated terms. It did not always seem certain, but he has left the international arena on his own terms.

It means that, with the ink barely dry on the Ashes review, led by the ECB chief executive Richard Gould, that decided everyone of importance should remain in place, the captain is gone, the director of cricket, Key, is vulnerable, and it is impossible to rule out the coach going, too.

The seeds of Stokes’s retirement were sown in the long gap after the Ashes, when he spent too much time alone, pushed his body to the limit and suffered a freak facial injury that has affected his eyesight, among other things.

During the Lord’s Test, Stokes turned 35. He was snappy and quietly mulling retirement amid a realisation that this was no longer entirely his team, after the relationship built by McCullum and white-ball captain Harry Brook at the T20 World Cup.

Going out that night and colliding with the Saracens Rugby Club end-of-season party was a bad mistake for a leader of his age to make, but was a symptom of how weighed down he was by his future.

This story was not a media construct. The ECB rushed out the news within hours fearing a repeat of the Harry Brook Wellington incident that was buried until Telegraph Sport broke the story.

Security told McCullum first thing in the morning, and he sent it up the chain of command to Key then Gould. The chief executive was instantly furious. He had wanted to sack Brook after Wellington, but was persuaded by the team management not to, given the batsman’s impending importance to the Ashes.

Gould was insistent that, after the Rex Rooms incident, a press release had to go out on the Monday evening despite others disagreeing and urging the board to take a night’s sleep while scrambling for information about what had actually led to the 6ft 5in Samoan Totoa Auvaa aiming a punch at Gus Atkinson, which connected with James Shaw, the security detail.

Atkinson was left with bruises, too, but was bowling at the Oval a couple of days later. Shaw required stitches, and was quietly parked for the rest of the series and is not expected to return with the men’s team anytime soon. He told the Cricket Regulator he was not aware of the curfew.

As the collective fury turned to “bewilderment”, the next big moment was Key’s angry press conference three days later, followed by McCullum’s “I’m worried about Ben” intervention two days out from the Oval Test. The plot thickened each day, but by then the lawyers were hard at work.

During his fortnight on the naughty step, Stokes went through a range of emotions. He was initially apologetic, and while Atkinson said he was unaware of the curfew, Stokes accepted that he did and assured his more junior colleague he would take the rap.

With the ECB keen for him to step down, he threatened to retire immediately. He was persuaded by his advisers not to go out in such fashion, before they defended him fiercely in front of the Cricket Regulator. Soon enough the game was back to Team Stokes vs Team ECB, as if it were a rerun of 2018 and the Bristol court case.

He confided in some close friends in the North East that, even after he had calmed down and enjoyed playing for Durham, he was considering retirement.

Returning at Trent Bridge, Stokes’s pre-match press conference was evasive, inconsistent, and occasionally emotional. Michael Lumb, a T20 World Cup winner with England, now works alongside Neil Fairbrother for Stokes’s management company and was his minder on the eve of the Test when he spoke to the media. Lumb was there again, managing his retirement announcement with the ECB.

Eyebrows were raised when, on the first day of the Test, the players’ friends and families area was stuffed full of Stokes’s entourage. Standard procedure allows players four tickets each. The captain had at least double that. “Feels like a farewell party,” one person present said, with a smile.

He did not make his final decision until another two days when he was strapping on his pads to bat in the first innings. On Saturday evening, he told Joe Root, his predecessor, and Brook, his probable successor, but waited until the following morning to inform McCullum, with whom he had put on a united front all week.

The team found out shortly before play, with many stunned players then dancing around the outfield in what seemed performative chipperness but might actually have been a genuine determination to enjoy his company for the final time.

Stokes rejected the idea that the day had been “choreographed”, but it was. The announcement’s timing – 3.25pm, 15 minutes before tea on day four – was curious.

Stokes said he left his management to communicate with the ECB communications team over it. He had told his team-mates before play, because there was a chance the game could end. There was determination from the ECB that Stokes should get a farewell from the crowd, which he certainly did, only for the day to be soured a touch by the derailing of England’s chase in the evening.

Some players on the field, including Jacob Bethell and the unflinching Kiwi Daryl Mitchell, were baffled by the crowd’s sudden excitement. The ECB had taken the unusual step of posting a video from the changing room on a match day, but it quickly racked up six million views.

McCullum gave Stokes and Atkinson a rollicking

McCullum missed all the county action at the start of the summer, but has built a fresh power base of close ECB confidants and a new media strategy has placed him front and centre, like a football manager or rugby coach. He has done more press conferences in June alone than the entire Ashes tour.

Further evidence for the ECB that McCullum had changed came with his response to the Rex Rooms incident, when the two players received an utter rollicking. Three questions remain. Do fans trust him? How will the players, many of whom were questioning his methods after the Ashes, feel about him outlasting Stokes? And can he seriously be backed to reset the reboot?

The ECB proved after Australia it would not be swayed by public opinion or pressure from pundits. Key was at Trent Bridge from Friday having missed the first day for medical reasons, but kept a very low profile. He was the architect of the whole project, uniting Stokes and McCullum, but was bruised by the last month, which came just when he thought they had turned a corner.

Stokes said the reasons for his retirement “could wait” and for now he is tied by the terms of his ECB contract, worth £1.3m a year, and which currently runs until October 2027, pending an early release and negotiated settlement.

He did give further details behind his retirement in his many media appearances on Monday, but towards the end of his final press conference as captain laughed to his long-time ghostwriter: “We’ve got another good book coming.”

Stokes thanked the media, said he enjoyed the jousts down the years but, as so often, he is set to have the final say, one last time.

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