On Fire: My Story of England's Summer to Remember by Stokes Ben

Author:Stokes, Ben [Stokes, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472271266
Publisher: Headline
Published: 2019-11-13T18:30:00+00:00

THE

ASHES

2019

8

TRANSITIONS

England v Ireland,

Lord’s, 24–27 July 2019

The date was 24 July. Ten days had passed since the World Cup final. It was the opening day of the one-off Test versus Ireland at Lord’s.

I was so pleased that I had been able to contribute to the success of a team that means so much to me, but I was not involved in this match. There was just over a week until the second part of our dual mission of 2019 was scheduled to begin.

As we prepared to face Australia at Edgbaston, however, I could not help feeling that there was something missing for me. Of the punishments I’d received in the aftermath of the Bristol incident, losing the Test vice-captaincy was what hurt me most. So I decided I would take the plunge. I sent a text message to Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, to inform him that I wanted to be Joe Root’s deputy once more. It certainly left him in no doubt how much I wanted things to revert to how they were previously:

Hi Tom. I’ve been thinking of how to ask this in different ways. But there is only one way and this is how I want to put it, I began.

Am I getting my vice-captaincy back? I understand the reasoning it was taken off me and the politics that didn’t allow me to have it, even with how hard Joe has pushed for me to have it back.

We’re about to play in the Ashes and without sounding arrogant Joe needs me as his right-hand man.

I want it back desperately and I want to help Joe through all the highs and lows for the rest of the summer and his career as England captain.

I don’t beg for anything but this is as close as I will ever come to doing so.

Stokesy.

It was not something that I had spoken about previously to anyone other than my manager Neil Fairbrother, and Joe Root, the man who had selected me as his deputy when he took over from Alastair Cook in early 2017. Having the honour returned to me – and I consider it a huge honour – was not something I had particularly pushed for outside of this relationship.

However, I was aware for some time that Joe had been lobbying for me, pressing people on my behalf about a possible reinstatement. There were a couple of occasions when he’d had a few drinks that he told me of his intentions. I had been quite relaxed about it, as there was nothing else I could do.

Perhaps the powers that be were resistant for a while. Now, however, I changed tack and chose to reiterate my desire to get it back.

Some people will ask why it is important. What does a vice-captain really do? And I guess it’s no more than a status symbol. A status symbol that I hold dearly, though.

If you put my whole career in chronological order, the day I was told I was being made vice-captain of England’s Test team was a major landmark.

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