It is not known how accurate it would be to summarize an athlete's career with just one summer, but the summer of 2019 in British sports history was defined by these two words: Ben Stokes.
The 32-year-old player, who ended his country's 44-year longing for the Cricket World Cup, also left his mark on The Ashes played between Australia and England. Stokes, who adorned the newspapers with images of the street fight he was involved in not long ago, quickly became one of the most important sports figures of the country again.
It all started in 2003. The fate of the Stokes family, who lived in New Zealand, changed when their father, Greg, a rugby coach, received a job offer from England. Ben was introduced to cricket in England and this game changed his destiny. He attracted attention in every age group and became one of the most popular cricket players in England. The New Zealand-born name, who was selected for the national team at the age of 20, became the highest-paid foreigner in the IPL, the most popular cricket league in the world. One season later, he rose to the top among all players in this field in the league and also won the 'Most Valuable Player' award. He also became the vice-captain of the England National Team.
Benjamin Andrew Stokes (born 4 June 1991) is an English international cricketer who is the captain of the England Test team and plays for the England team in ODIs and T20Is. In domestic cricket, he represents Durham and has played in multiple Twenty20 leagues around the world. He was part of the England team that won the 2019 Cricket World Cup and 2022 T20 World Cup.
The fight he got into with teammate Alex Hales outside a nightclub in Bristol after the first match of the series against the West Indies in September 2017, and his subsequent arrest, brought Stokes to the headlines and caused his reputation to disappear. Although he was found not guilty after an 11-month trial, he lost his vice-captain title and was fined and banned from the national team for eight matches.
When asked if his experiences would negatively affect his career, he answered by making a great comeback. England wanted to win their first-ever title at the Cricket World Cup at home. Stokes showed that he would contribute to making this dream come true in the opening match against South Africa. In addition to his 89 points in 79 balls, his catch of a ball in the match was among the best moves in history. The British press had already prepared the description 'The Catch of the Century'. He was not only the player who had the most important share in the victory in the matches against India and Australia, where England was at risk of elimination but also was the one who brought the cup against New Zealand in the final. With his shots at the end of the final, he first prolonged the match, and then he was chosen as the player of the final as England achieved victory.
Those who thought that Stokes' perfect 2019 summer would be limited to this championship were wrong. He was England's most shining name in the Ashes, too. Stokes, who completed the five-match series with 441 runs and eight wickets, prevented England from throwing in the towel with his half-time performance in the third match (135 runs). His performance was cited as one of the best four-inning performances in the country's history. Considering that Geoff Hurst's hat trick in 1966 is mentioned as a performance equal to the drop goal scored by Jonny Wilkinson in the 2003 Rugby World Cup, where England won the championship, it becomes clear how extreme Stokes' success is.
Thus, Ben Stokes has already made his name among the legends of English history. It is not known how accurate it would be to summarize an athlete's career with just one summer, but the summer of 2019 in British sports history was defined by these two words: Ben Stokes.