England star forged in NZ
Ben Stokes’ father former league prop, writes Chris Rattue
Ben Stokes’ remarkable path into the England cricket team was paved with league. But the 23-year-old New Zealand-born Stokes, whose stunning century — the second fastest test 100 by an English player — turned around a terrible position against Brendon McCullum’s side at Lord’s, had already been identified as a potential cricket star in the country of his birth.
His father is Cantabrian Gerard Stokes, a former Kiwis prop who played alongside the most famous names in New Zealand league history. The 59-year-old Gerard, or Ged, is also a cricket fanatic who played until five years ago before his body ran up the white flag.
The family had moved to England in 2003 so Gerard — whose many roles here included assisting Gary Freeman with the Kiwis — could pursue a club league coaching career.
“Ben has played cricket ever since he could walk basically,” Gerard Stokes told the Herald from Christchurch. “He was a general all round sports kid . . . league, rugby, cricket. He had been in Christchurch and Wellington teams and was in the Wellington academy at the Basin Reserve. He had a talent for it and loved it.
“It was hard for him at the start in England, and he really didn’t want to go. It meant leaving his family and friends and he was doing really well in rugby, league and cricket.
“It was tough for him but he adapted pretty quickly, as kids do. The biggest problem was the language barrier, believe it or not. They’ve got a very broad accent in Cumbria and he had absolutely no idea what they were talking about at first. Now he sounds more Cumbrian than the Cumbrians at times.” Young Stokes continued his impressive league and cricket progress in England until making a career decision at 14, having been spotted by Durham. Taking the cricket plunge meant a five-hour round trip, three or four times a week, from the tiny village of Cockermouth until Ben moved to Durham aged 16.
It wasn’t always easy financially when Gerard — who coached his old club Workington Town and then Whitehaven — was between jobs. But Ben’s blossoming cricket career meant returning to New Zealand was never an option.
“It was nothing that any parent wouldn’t do,” says Gerard, “but I did like to think he would kick on with all that commitment from us and his school.”
Gerard Stoke’s own brush with international sport was brief but memorable. He was in the 1982 Kiwis who toured Australia and Papua New Guinea that included names such as McGahan, Leuluai, Tamati, West, Friend, Broadhurst, Ah Kuoi, Filipaina, Graham — in other words, legends in the making. He didn’t make a test side, but was man of the match in a game at Goroka, winning the equivalent of $180 as the New Zealand
Rugby League Annual noted. “That was the highlight for me . . . I remember how bloody hot it was during the day, and how cold it was at night,” says Stokes.
“I’ve never seen so many people at a ground before and lots of them had tribal head dress, bones through their noses. It was unbelievably intimidating, yet friendly at the same time. It was an amazing atmosphere and to be in that team, in that era, was quite special.”
Ben and his partner, Clare, have two kids — Layton (aged 2) and Libby who was born this year. Gerard says he and his wife Deb are confident their son has a strong support network and management team, which includes former England batsman Neil Fairbrother. This helped them decide to return to live in Christchurch two years ago.
There may be rocky times ahead for Ben of course, because life in the England cricket side tends to be like that. But it is celebration time now.
Stokes says: “Ben likes to be challenged and is very combative which has come out in detrimental ways at times but he is learning to focus that aggression in good ways.
“I watched his whole century and it was a reasonably typical Ben Stokes innings — if it is there to be hit he will take it on. Sometimes players like him can be labelled reckless and he understands that equation. But he is very much ‘live by the sword, die by the sword’.”