Sometimes a jolt is all you need to realise your true purpose in life. This is true for England all-rounder Ben Stokes, who came out of a career threatening incident off the pitch to eventually play a crucial role in guiding England to their maiden ICC World Cup title. Stokes, who was involved in a brawl outside a Bristol nightclub in 2017, had to miss England's Ashes series in Australia. His absence weakened England's squad as the team had to change its strategy and they ended up going down badly in Australia.
Former England captain and current ECB Director of Cricket, Andrew Strauss, has spoken about the incident involving Stokes and how it eventually led to a better culture in the England team. Strauss played a pivotal role, from behind the scenes, in revamping England's approach to limited overs cricket and that eventually yielded result as the team won its maiden ICC World Cup in 2019.
Speaking on a Sky Sports podcast, Strauss revealed that the incident caused a lot of upheaval for the team but eventually helped improve the culture, and the entire set up benefitted from it.
"That was a massive spanner on the works. It made us realise no matter what you do on the park, there can be some things that can happen off the pitch that can be far more damaging than anything that happens on the pitch. Us losing a series is a bit of a step back but it's not a big deal. But losing our best player for an extended period of time. Having to reshape our team and constantly back off questions about the England team's culture and drinking and that sort of stuff was incredibly damaging.
"It was one of those moments where we have this other project going on. We had to look at the England team culture, in fact the dinner that we had for all past England players, helped making people realise how fortunate they were to play cricket for England and also the responsibility that came with that.
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"In retrospect I think what happened with Ben Stokes was a blessing in disguise because it helped the players appreciate the culture bit. They realised it's not one of those things that the coach or the director wants us to do but it is something which either takes us close to winning or takes us away from it.
"So we had Joe Root and Eoin Morgan buying into it and the England plaers took it seriously and by the time the World Cup came there were these set of rules, well rules might not be the right word, it was about the way you were as an England player. That you were not just judged by your performance but also how you were as an England players," the former England captain said.
Stokes was England's stand out player in the World Cup and also played key role in drawing the home Test series against Australia. Strauss believed the incident had a deep impact on everyone and left Stokes in a better shape.
"It was a brutally tough period for Ben Stokes. I think he was better for the experience by the way, but I think the whole England cricket culture was better for that experience," Strauss concluded.
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