Main Character Syndrome Took its Toll on Stokes

PL on the retirement of the England captain whose life in the headlines played havoc with his head

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Like a rapidly deflating party balloon, he bounced off walls, careening through the guests, ubiquitous, bubbling and bouncing, and then suddenly spent. Totally deflated. The last, chaotic days, weeks and months have been a Ben Stokes on fast forward, the pace unsustainable, and the end apparently inevitable. The Ashes and this crash and burn against the Kiwis have proved that it wasn’t there any more. Ageing sports stars often report in hindsight that they were doing more for less. Ricky Ponting found himself obsessively chasing fitness in a gym and form in the nets, feeling the game slipping from his fingers, he’d tightened his grip, redoubled his efforts, but the game, like the bat, must be gripped softly, never never strangled.

Stokes was nowhere, and he was everywhere on these last days at Headingley. It felt like he’d bowled every other over of the third innings, and he’d done it wholeheartedly, to reasonable effect, but it appears to have been a losing cause.

Captaincy takes its toll on everybody, but particularly on those who lead the charge, those who press into the headwinds to shield their flock from the worst of its force. Even in the address to players announcing his retirement on day four, he stuck a curious tone when asking others to go to the well one more time with him. He sounded a man apart, a leader distant from his men, loved but a little lost. As if he’d pushed the boat out and found himself adrift.