Ged Stokes recalled as tough prop, proud dad
Gerard Stokes, a former New Zealand rugby league international and father of England cricket star Ben Stokes, has died at the age of 65.
Known as ‘Ged’ Stokes, the Cantabrian had been battling brain cancer after being diagnosed in January.
Ben Stokes was absent from England’s second and third tests at home against Pakistan in August, having left after the first test to fly to New Zealand for ‘‘family reasons’’.
Ged, a tough prop who played four tour matches for the Kiwis in 1982 before turning to coaching, was diagnosed with the illness in January, soon after returning home from South Africa, where he had fallen sick.
He was on tour, along with his wife, Deborah, and their eldest son, James, watching Ben play, but was admitted to hospital in Johannesburg in a critical condition and spent time in intensive care before being released after 37 days and three surgeries.
Ben, a 29-year-old all-rounder, born in Christchurch, who played a huge role in New Zealand’s Cricket World Cup final heartache last year, had taken to celebrating on the field with a three-fingered salute – a tribute to his father, who dislocated a finger and asked for it to be amputated to speed up his return to the league paddock.
After the World Cup final at Lord’s, which the Black Caps agonisingly lost on boundary countback after a tied super over, Ged Stokes said he was fielding jibes about being ‘‘the most hated father in New Zealand’’.
‘‘That was pretty tongue-incheek, I hope it was anyway,’’ he joked to 1 News in July, 2019.
‘‘I really am disappointed for the Black Caps. It’s such a shame someone had to walk away without the trophy,’’ Ged Stokes told Stuff at the time.
‘‘Hand on heart, I am overjoyed for Ben and the team, but I am still a New Zealand supporter.’’
Ged Stokes coached Canterbury and Wellington in provincial league and was in charge of the New Zealand A tour of Great Britain in 2003.
He left New Zealand to play for Workington Town, a rugby league club in northern England, in 1982 and returned to coach there in 2004. He also coached Workington’s Cumbrian rivals, Whitehaven, from 2008-10.
Workington and Whitehaven tweeted their tributes yesterday.
Whitehaven chairman Tom Todd told the UK’s ITV News that Stokes ‘‘was a larger than life character, in every sense of the word’’.
England Cricket shared a picture of Ben Stokes paying tribute to his father.