“After The First ODI Against India…”: Ben Stokes Opens Up On ODI Retirement

Ben Stokes shocked the world earlier this year when he announced that he would be retiring from ODI cricket. The 2019 World Cup-winning star played his last ODI on July 19 against South Africa at his home turf in Durham. In his retirement statement, Stokes admitted that playing in all three formats was no longer “sustainable” for him. Stokes, who is currently the skipper of England in the longest format, recently spoke about his decision to retire from the 50-over format and what does he makes of the ODIs right now.

The 31-year-old also spoke about how the ICC can look to make the ODIs a 40-over per side contest as there would not be a drastic change in scores and almost same sort of scores would be on offer as compared to 50 overs.

“It is a pretty tough decision but at the same time, it was made easy for me. I always had it at the back of my mind that I would have to you know, walk away from one of the white-ball formats. I just did not know which one, and I was not going to make a decision until I was clear in my mind which one it is going to be. You hear people say who have retired from many things, they say ‘when you know, you know’,” said Stokes during a select media call organised by Prime Video, who will be streaming Stokes’ documentary ‘Ben Stokes: Phoenix From The Ashes’ from August 26.

“So, it was after the first ODI against India at the Oval, which I finished that game, even on the evening of the game, it was my moment of ‘when you know, you know’. Yeah, almost hit me in the face, just like that. As hard it was to know that I won’t be playing this format anymore, it was also a decision that was almost made easy because of how quickly it hit me,” he added.

Talking about the future of ODIs and whether he would like to see any change in the format, Stokes said: “Yeah, it is a great question at the moment with how much cricket is being played around the world. You know, the last thing anybody wants is to be there a format, I do not know, be taken away from people. Maybe there is a way, ICC can look at, maybe restructuring the schedule, maybe redoing the format. You look at England now with the Hundred, they are making a completely new format but that still goes alongside the T20 version.”

“You know, something can be looked at, it is my own personal view, could they look at maybe turning 50 overs into 40 overs. I mean, when I first started playing professional cricket, there was that CB-40 and that was a really good format to play. Nowadays, it would just be an extended version of T20 cricket and I personally think you would end up seeing the same scores, anyway in 40 overs that you do in 50 overs. Because there is so much cricket, is there a way that schedule and formats can be looked at to still keep the 3 formats, but maybe less cricket? If you look at 40 overs than 50 overs, I think that can be a solution. I think there needs to be a lot of thought put into it but the last thing you want I think for the sport, is that a certain format is completely chucked away,” he further stated.

Nowadays, not many tri-series get scheduled, even though there are some scheduled in the Men’s FTP for 2023-27 period. Stokes did not commit to saying whether tri-series are a solution to saving ODIs, but he did say that organisers need to ensure that the best product is put out in the world and all the best players end up playing as many games as possible.

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“I got no idea. The thing that, people who organise these things need to look at what is the best way to get the best product out there and have the best players from every country to play every game possible in whatever format it is. But at the moment, it does not seem to be that way, it seems to be series after series, series overlapping for teams. Just, for example, we had a Test series going on and then we had an ODI series going on at the same time. When you are scheduling cricket like that, it is obviously going to affect the product,” said Stokes.

“It is understandable because cricket is almost playing catchup because of what happened with COVID. But I think it needs to be looked at now, realistic point of view needs to be looked at, it is just not the game that is played, there is also travel and the time away from home. Everything like that, the expectations that are put on multi-format players, when I was playing all 3 formats, 2015-16-17, it did not feel like then that you are going from one format straight into another. There is more cricket packed into a smaller window and unfortunately, I do not think that is sustainable for players or for the product you want to be giving out in international cricket,” he further stated.