LONDON — England’s Ben Stokes will retire
from one-day international cricket after Tuesday’s series opener against South
Africa on his Durham home ground, citing an “unsustainable” schedule as the
motivation for his shock decision.
اضافة اعلان
Stokes, who became England Test captain in April,
made his ODI debut in 2011 and his standout performance in the format came in
the 2019 World Cup final against New Zealand.
The charismatic all-rounder scored an unbeaten 84 in
the Lord’s final to force a super over that ended with England becoming 50-over
world champions for the first time by the slenderest of margins.
But in the three years since that triumphant moment,
the 31-year-old has played just nine more ODIs due to injuries, a mental health
break and workload management.
He will turn out one last time at Chester-le-Street
against South Africa on Tuesday before focusing on his Test captaincy and
Twenty20 career.
Stokes, who has scored 2,919 runs and taken 74
wickets with his lively fast-medium bowling in 104 ODIs, said in a social media
post on Monday that it had been an “incredibly tough decision to make”.
“As hard as a decision as this was to come to, it’s
not as hard (as) dealing with the fact I can’t give my teammates 100 percent of
myself in this format anymore,” he said.
“The England shirt deserves nothing less from anyone
who wears it. Three formats are just unsustainable for me now.
Punishing schedule
“Not only do I feel that my
body is letting me down because of the schedule and what is expected of us, but
I also feel that I am taking the place of another player who can give (captain)
Jos (Buttler) and the rest of the team their all.
“I will give everything I have to Test cricket, and
now, with this decision, I feel I can also give my total commitment to the T20
format.”
Stokes’s decision to quit ODIs follows the
retirement last month of World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan, who helped
shape England into a formidable force in the white-ball game.
Clare Connor, the interim CEO at the England and
Wales Cricket Board, described Stokes as a “superstar in every format of our
game”.
“Ben is not only one of the world’s best players,
but an inspirational figure too so our ODI team will miss him,” she said.
“But having taken on the Test captaincy and with
today’s busy calendar of cricket, we completely understand and respect his
decision.”
Stokes’s decision to step down comes after England’s
2–1 series defeat against India, in which he scored 48 runs in three innings
but only bowled three overs.
He has been rested from the three T20 games against
South Africa that will follow the three-match ODI series against the Proteas.
England has crammed seven Tests and 12 limited overs
internationals into their home season following a punishing touring program.
Former England captain Nasser Hussain criticized the
“joke” schedule, lamenting Stokes’s retirement.
“If the ICC (International Cricket Council) just
keeps putting on ICC events, and the individual boards just keep filling in the
gaps with as much cricket as possible, then eventually these cricketers will
say ‘I’m done’,” he told Sky Sports.
Stokes and new red-ball head coach Brendon McCullum
have been widely praised for reviving England’s Test fortunes with an
aggressive approach that has led to spectacular wins against New Zealand and
India in recent weeks.
A three-Test series against South Africa starts at Lord’s on
August 17.
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