Updated ,first published
Ben Stokes has apologised to England teammates for his part in the two-week curfew saga that caused chaos on and off the field and admitted he has considered giving away the captaincy in the final years of his Test career.
There was also an admission from Stokes that the England set-up is under more pressure this week than at any time since he and Brendon McCullum took over in 2022: defeat to New Zealand at Trent Bridge may well lead to a very different team for next year’s Ashes series.
Stokes and fast bowler Gus Atkinson were handed reprimands for staying out until after 1am the night following a victory over New Zealand at Lord’s, further complicated by a fracas inside the Rex Rooms nightclub in Chelsea that was found to have been caused by a Saracens rugby player, with Stokes not involved.
In the days that followed, neither McCullum nor England team director Rob Key would endorse Stokes as captain. McCullum stated repeatedly that he was concerned about the all-rounder’s mental health.
Stokes said he understood what McCullum was trying to say. The pair spent over an hour together to clear the air on Tuesday, while Key spoke with McCullum and Stokes at training on Wednesday.
“Of course [I apologised],” Stokes said on Wednesday (local time), in his first public comments since the incident.
“That was one of the first things I had to do as a captain. You look at the situation, and it affects more than just myself. It affects a lot of people, it affected Joe [Root], the squad, the people outside the playing environment.
“It no doubt had an effect on lads who were making their debut. That should have been all about them, but unfortunately a situation outside of their control took precedence over their big days, making their debut for England in Test cricket.
“It would be stupid and naive of me not to acknowledge and address that. It’s something you do have to do, as someone who has responsibility of being a leader in a group.
“You need to be big enough and man enough to take that upon your shoulders, and look everyone who it has affected in the eye and apologise the way you need to apologise.”
Nevertheless, Stokes made it clear he was frustrated by the ECB process and how it had let the issue drag on for two weeks. Stokes and Atkinson were left out of the side that lost heavily to New Zealand at the Oval, leaving the series tied.
“I’m not going to sit here and lie,” Stokes said. “Was I a bit frustrated by the process? Yes. Has the process finished? Yes. Are me and Gus back, where we want to be? Yes.”
In a separate interview with the BBC, Stokes said he had been pondering whether to give up the England captaincy since the end of the 4-1 Ashes defeat in Australia.
“The England captaincy is one of those things where I’m 35 now,” Stokes said. “Even before this stuff all happened, I thought, ‘Could I ever see myself playing for England and not being captain?’
“It’s a question I’ve never really been able to answer, because it’s been such a big part of this part of my career. You look at others who have stepped away from captaincy and kept playing – I don’t really know. I love playing for England. I love being captain of this team and that’s where I’m at with everything.”
In terms of the ramifications of defeat this week, Stokes did not shy away from the fact that much hinged on the result in Nottingham.
“Has the pressure on this team ramped up? Well, this is definitely the highest amount of pressure we’ve been under since me and Baz became coach and captain,” Stokes said.
“That’s fine. How you deal with it is what proves if you’re a good leader or not. What me and Baz have done has been able to accept that this is pretty high pressure, but we know what we need to do is go out there and win games of cricket.”
Perhaps that is why Stokes declined to commit to the England captaincy beyond this week, deflecting questions about leading England against Australia next year.
But he also went to some lengths to clarify his professional relationship, and friendship, with McCullum.
“There’s been a big misconception around this with me and Brendon,” he said. “Me and Brendon have a professional relationship … but then we’ve also got a relationship away from that. We generally are very good mates … we have been through some testing times, we’ve been through some [great] times.
“Do we agree on everything? Absolutely not. Do we have discussions around things? Absolutely. And those discussions end both of us getting into the place where we can make a good decision. Not agreeing on everything shouldn’t be seen as a divide between me and Brendon.
“Me and Brendon, our relationship goes behind me being captain and him being coach.”
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Daniel Brettig is The Age’s chief cricket writer and the author of several books on cricket.Connect via X.
