Ben Stokes is a brilliant cricketer. No question of that; his track record comparing favourably with the best of them in any era at any time in the illustrious history of the game.
His flamboyant batting, hostile, penetrating bowling, allied to his sharpness in the field, made him a stand out in my book, surpassing even Ian Botham, another English great.
The scorecard tells its own tale, and statistics do not lie. The 35 year old, New Zealand born legend is right up there. 7273 runs in 122 Tests and 252 wickets in the same arena to which you can add 115 catches. His ODI record was equally impressive but don’t take my word for it; just study the records.
Even then the stats fail to recognise the full impact the left handed Stokes had on so many occasions. To describe them as explosive is to under estimate them.
Whether he was a great captain is another matter, but according to many of those who played with him, he was an inspiration.
The question, as he merges into history, is would he have been more effective had he and his management team pulled together.
I am not in a position to comment. Stokes will be hard to replace, but he will be just as Botham was by Freddie Flintoff, only let down by injury, but not before he played a huge part in sending the Aussies home without the Ashes in 2005.
For those of you who hanker to see players of stature in the local game, let me assure you that heroes, ok on a lesser scale, have graced the Aberdeen area game.
For example Alan Middleton of Ellon Gordon was one of one of the most driven of players who sadly was taken from us in his early 40’s, but not before he had taken the Gordon Park side to the heights, locally and nationally in the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s
Before this mixed summer becomes history, I will pen a piece in tribute to one of great all rounders of Grades cricket.
In the meantime I shall bask in the many memories Ben Stokes has left the game.