Arrest turned into ‘good thing’ for Stokes
Ben Stokes immediately apologised to Andrew Strauss when the then England team director went to meet him on the morning he was released from police custody in Bristol following his arrest for alleged assault causing actual bodily harm in 2017.
Strauss believes the arrest in Bristol has helped to mould the character of the player who was man of the match in Sunday’s World Cup final. Stokes was cleared at Bristol Crown Court last August after pleading not guilty to a lesser charge of affray.
“You know what, I just remember going down to the police station,” Strauss said. “I spent a long time with Clare, his wife, waiting for him to come out of the jail, and what struck me as soon as he came out was actually his character.
“He stood up and said, ‘I’ve got this horribly wrong. I apologise sincerely for what I’ve done here.’ From that moment on, I thought this was going to be a good thing for him.
“I thought this was going to be very noisy and very hard for us to navigate. It was very hard to know which way it was going to go. People can go two ways after something like that happens to them.
“Anyone who knows Ben, who has played with him, knows what an incredible person he is to have on your team.
“I think what we’ve seen is some of those rough edges just smoothed a little bit over the last 12 or 18 months, without him losing that incredible desire and hunger to win and that competitive streak.
“It’s an easy story to say what happened in the World Cup final is redemption for him, but I just think it was one of English cricket’s talents showing what he can do on the greatest stage. It was amazing to see that, and not just him doing it but to see his family there, who had been through so much alongside him.”