Stokes, a left-handed hitter, has stated that Twenty20 cricket is now sort of becoming a “business,” but that Test cricket will continue to be the pinnacle of the game, and that his primary responsibility is to promote the game’s longest format.
Ben Stokes, captain of England’s Test team, is widely regarded as one of the game’s finest all-rounders in the contemporary era. However, early this year, the star player made the decision to withdraw from one-day international cricket due to the strain of his schedule.
His final One-Day International match (ODI) was contested in Durham, which is located in his home country of England. Since his decision to step away from One-Day International cricket became known, a discussion has ensued about the cricket schedule and how to best manage the workload of players so that they can participate in the most possible matches for their respective countries.
Given the proliferation of Twenty20 leagues all over the world, the fundamental challenge for bilateral cricket is to ensure that it remains in the public consciousness. Stokes, a left-handed hitter, has stated that Twenty20 cricket is now sort of becoming a “business,” but that Test cricket will continue to be the pinnacle of the game, and that his primary responsibility is to promote the game’s longest format. Earlier, Ravi Shastri, who had previously served as the head coach of Team India, has proposed reducing the number of teams that compete in the longest format in order to keep it competitive.
“Whether he agrees with Shastri to a certain level or not, the answer is both yes and no. When you look at how franchise cricket is progressing at the moment, there are a lot of franchises that have numerous teams throughout the world that are spread out across a variety of nations. “Obviously, India, CPL, and South Africa now, you see people having multiple franchise teams,” Stokes said in response to a question posed by NDTV during a select media call organised by Prime Video. Beginning on August 26, Prime Video will begin streaming his documentary titled “Ben Stokes: Phoenix From the Ashes.”
You could say that Twenty20 is now becoming a business for certain people, but it is obviously excellent for the game that things like this are occurring. You already know that it gives a lot more opportunity, and there are more opportunities for players today than there were 15 years ago. He continued by saying, “Life outside of cricket, security, and the money that is involved in the sport now are a lot more than they were 15–20 years ago.”
“Therefore, there is also that which needs to be looked at, professional sport in and of itself is a very brief career. Not only do you want to be playing the best cricket for as long as you possibly can, but you also need to think for the future. It’s up to you if you want to keep playing cricket, but I don’t see Test cricket disappearing any time soon,” he insisted. “If you want to stop playing cricket, you can.”
“The format is the pinnacle of cricket, and I do all in my power to promote it. The most unadulterated form of it. “Test match cricket is still the apex of the sport,” the new captain of the England Test team said. “Yeah, I can never see test match cricket going anywhere, even though T20 cricket is sort of changing the face of the sport,” the new captain of the England Test team said.
“And I know that, even the other top players in the globe feel precisely the same way about it,” the speaker continued. As a result, I get the impression that we, the people, have a responsibility to ensure that the word stays alive and well that test cricket is still very much alive. He went on to say that “absolutely, in our judgement, that is not the case.”
In the next documentary that Stokes is working on, he will discuss his struggles with mental health. It is important to remember that in 2021, Stokes took a vacation from playing cricket in order to focus on his mental health and that he did not participate in the Twenty20 World Cup during that time.
When folks talk about how difficult it was? No, it was not because when I said, yeah, that is something I want to do in terms of doing a documentary, I clearly emphasised that I do not want this documentary to be all about making myself seem good. The reason for this is that I do not want to make myself look good in this documentary. It is an opportunity for me to get to know individuals and just show them who I am. I believe that sportsmen are only seldom able to accomplish that. A picture of a sportsman is created based on what viewers see of them on television, whether they are watching them compete or whether they are appearing in the media or at press conferences.
