ASHES STAR BEN STOKES
Miracle innings is thanks to my amazing wife Clare
THE nation’s new sporting hero Ben Stokes yesterday thanked his wife and family for his cricketing success.
As there were growing calls for him to be knighted, the 28-year-old star exclusively told the Daily Express: “I’ve said it many times before but my wife Clare has been brilliant and so supportive throughout the years. Your family go though everything with you, good and bad, so it is great to be able to celebrate with them at times like this.
“I didn’t actually see Clare until late in the evening when we got back from the ground and I still had my training gear on and my England cap.
“The first thing she spotted was the bag in my hand and she said, ‘Oh, so we’ve been to McDonald’s have we?’.”
And the star, who singlehandedly drove England to victory against Australia in the third test at Headingley on Sunday, added: “It was great to celebrate with her after such an amazing day.
“The night before Clare and the kids had arrived and were excited to be there. When Clare’s excited she talks at 10 to the dozen so she was asking me loads of questions and chatting away. I was trying to keep things as quiet as possible with what might be to come, so I wasn’t the most communicative that evening.
“Our partners have to live the ups and downs with us and cope with the various stages we’re at, whether it is the end of a day when we’ve got no energy or whenever.
“We’ve got a little break now between the third and fourth Tests which has come at just the right time, because these games take it out of you and they come thick and fast.
“Getting home with Clare and the family whenever I can is so important to me and now this game is done I just cannot wait to be back home for five days and cut the grass.
“I love playing cricket, but you need to be able to get away from the game and that is where your home and your family keep you grounded.”
The star credits Clare, with whom he has children Layton, six, and Libby, four, with helping him turn his life around. He has said: “Clare is like my best friend. She and my family have helped me through the ups and downs. As long as they are there, that’s all that matters.” The couple met in 2010 when the former primary school teacher took a liking to Stokes on a family trip to see Lancashire play Durham at Old Trafford. They married in October 2017.
Stokes was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, before moving to northern England with his parents Ged and Deb at the age of 12.
‘If we write off all who’ve made a mistake, it’s a lot of people’
WHAT a difference a year makes. Last August, Ben Stokes had just been found not guilty of assault. It was the end of a 12-month ordeal for the England cricketer, which at one point looked like ending his international career.
Today, he is a national hero. Winning the World Cup with a stellar innings would be enough for most cricketers. Not Stokes. For, on Sunday he gave one of the greatest sporting performances of all time in nearly single-handedly winning the Third Test at Headingley and keeping England’s Ashes hopes alive.
But this is not a column about sport. Stokes’s claim to sporting immortality is, of course, based on his astonishing talent and success. But his achievement at Headingley – and six weeks ago in the World Cup Final at Lord’s – is something that should resonate with us all, whether or not we care about cricket.
Stokes’ success is a parable for our times. He shows how each of us can put past mistakes behind us – and if we address those mistakes and learn from them, we can succeed.
IN SEPTEMBER 2017, Stokes was caught up in a fracas outside a Bristol nightclub after an England game against theWest Indies.
His claim – backed up by witnesses – was that he had “stepped in” to defend two gay men being verbally abused and was forced to defend himself.
The consequences were devastating for him. He was dropped from the England team – and thus from the Ashes tour of Australia.
After his arrest, a video emerged of Stokes mocking the model Katie Price’s son Harvey. Although he later apologised, it seemed to be another nail in the coffin of his career.
Although it took 11 months for his case to come to trial, Stokes was recalled to the England team in February 2018
after his initial not guilty plea before magistrates.
The selectors’ willingness to let him play again, even though he still faced trial for a serious offence, was controversial – and the cloud hanging over him seemed to affect his form.
But since his acquittal he has once more become a linchpin of the England team. And that’s where the more general lesson kicks in.
Imagine if the England selectors had taken the view – urged by many – that while he faced trial for affray, he should not be allowed to play. It is easy to see how Stokes’s career could now be over, after a terrible blow to his psychological wellbeing and self-esteem.
None of us is perfect. Each of us is flawed. We have all done things of which we are ashamed. If we are defined only by those then it is not only ourselves who suffer.
Those around us – the people we love, the people we work with and the people we know – suffer as well, as they are deprived of the person we could be and the contribution we could make to their lives.
On this page on Saturday, I wrote about the incredible GCSE success of the Michaela Community School, most of whose pupils come from challenging backgrounds. Many such pupils are written off by their schools as trouble. As Michaela’s success shows, that is such an appalling attitude and a terrible waste. With the right approach, they can achieve so much.And we all benefit from that.
AND what about the 26,700 children who were given a police caution or a sentence last year? They will certainly have deserved it. But should their punishment last a lifetime? Those cautions and convictions are stored on the Police National Computer (PNC) until someone is 100 years old, and they will come to light in any search of criminal records.
Do those 26,700 children – and the many others who have records from their childhood – deserve their entire lives to be blighted?
The answer in many cases – such as gang members who carry a knife, let alone using one – may seem like an obvious “yes”. But what if they come to see the error of their ways? What if they simply fell in with the wrong crowd?
Damning them for ever to exclusion from “decent” society serves no one. They could, for example, become a useful advocate to prevent others from making the same mistakes.
The comparison with the cricketing hero of the day is not exact, as Stokes is not guilty of any crime. But a Ministry of Justice publication in 2010 found that 24 per cent of men (and 6 per cent of women) had a least one criminal conviction.
If we write off everyone who has made a mistake at some time in their life, that’s a pretty huge number of people.
On Sunday, Stokes demonstrated his sporting genius. But he also, hopefully, gave us a lesson about life.