Proteas nemesis Stokes’ sudden exit changes complexion of England series

Amid a blaze of self-centred fury, Ben Stokes retired from international cricket in Nottingham last Sunday, leaving a boatload of questions in his wake and, from a South African perspective, changing the complexion of the eagerly awaited series later this year.

Stokes was South Africa’s nemesis. With bat, with ball and in the field Stokes was a one-man wrecking agent of the Proteas’ dreams, especially in the Test format.

He produced his highest Test score at Newlands in 2016, crushed Vernon Philander’s last day heroics in his final Test at the same venue four years later and left Rassie van der Dussen in pain at Old Trafford during one of those customary marathon spells in 2022.

Four player of the match awards and three player of the series accolades demonstrate his dominance of South Africa in Test cricket. He lost just four Tests against South Africa, but in each of those series bounced back to guide England to victory in the next match.

South Africa’s players might be glad not to see him in December, but the public — especially those fortunate enough to snare tickets — are robbed of watching one of the game’s modern greats and also the primary architect of the most talked-about playing style in two decades.

The Proteas only got a taste of ‘Bazball’ in 2022, which wasn’t really ‘full Bazball’. England were, for all the bravado with which they talked after losing in three days at Lord’s that year, chastened by the innings and 12-run defeat.

Stokes led a mature, old-fashioned Test performance in the second match in Manchester, batting for more than three and half hours to score 103, and sharing a 183-run sixth wicket partnership with Ben Foakes (who batted for more than five hours to score 113*) that laid the table for a series-tying innings and 85-run win.

Perhaps in that match lay the early signs of the schism that became so apparent in the Ashes last summer, when Stokes and Brendon ‘Baz’ McCullum differed in their public utterances about the approach that England should adopt.

For all of his greatness as a player and the incredible moments he produced on the field, the end of Stokes’ international career was somewhat unedifying. In showing what looked like a middle finger to the English cricket “establishment” he undermined some of his great achievements, with the selfishness on display in Nottingham.

The contrived “look-at-me” change-room video announcement, then charging off the field to open the batting in England’s second innings (what must Emilio Gay, playing in his third Test, have thought?) and then the manner of the innings mixed stupidity and arrogance on a scale usually associated with latter-stage Cristiano Ronaldo.

Compare Stokes’s Test finale with that of a player with whom Stokes shares a unique statistical feat. He and Jacques Kallis are the only two players who have taken 250 Test wickets and scored 7,000 runs.

The end of Kallis’ Test career was not where he wished it to be ― Durban rather than Cape Town ― but he created a life-long and much appreciated memory with a selfless display that ended not only with South Africa winning a Test but the series too against a hyped up India in 2013.

The Proteas had gone into that Test at Kingsmead on the back of a barrage of criticism after abandoning an enormous run chase the previous week at the Wanderers.

Kallis batted for six and a half hours in the Durban heat, scoring 115 to help provide a large enough first innings lead that led to a 10-wicket victory.

Their future looks murky. Will McCullum still be coach? Who will captain? How do they replace Stokes the player?

There were no histrionics, just South Africa’s greatest cricketer putting his country and team first.

England are a lesser team without Stokes. Given his record against South Africa and what he provides from a skills perspective, had he played later this year, they might have been considered favourites.

That is no longer the case. Their future looks murky. Will McCullum still be coach? Who will captain? How do they replace Stokes the player?

Temba Bavuma might be smiling privately, though the competitor within the Proteas captain may have wanted Stokes here.

It will still be a watchable series, and for the Proteas a massive opportunity to win a home series against the English for the first time in 27 years, but it has, in Stokes’ absence, lost a little bit of its lustre.