Ben Stokes: IPL extravaganza about learning not earning
By the time Ben Stokes wakes up on Monday morning to catch a train from Durham to London he could be a very rich man indeed.
Thousands of miles away in Bangalore, India, starting at 9am Indian Standard Time (3.30am GMT) Stokes will be one of 351 cricketers Richard Madley, the IPL auctioneer from BBC’s Bargain Hunt, will sell like cattle at a market.
The buyers will be some of the richest people in India or in the case of the Ambani family, who own the Mumbai Indians, the richest in the world.
Mumbai are one of the teams said to be interested in Stokes who is the biggest English draw in an IPL auction since Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen were each sold for £1m in 2009.
Since then England players have largely been left on the shelf unsold as runts of the cricketing litter. They paid the price for lack of availability, no proven track record in India and the simple fact Australians and South Africans have nosed ahead of them and been more respected as white ball players in India than England. Pietersen and Eoin Morgan have been exceptions to the rule.
But that is starting to change. England reached the World Twenty20 final in India last year, and Stokes’s stunning meltdown in the last over of the final has not diminished his standing. Last year Jos Buttler was sold to the Mumbai Indians and performed well. This time Stokes is one of five England regulars on the auction list.
The others, including captain Eoin Morgan, may well suffer the usual English fate and miss out but Stokes is the talk of the IPL at the moment. Monday could be millionaire day for him.
As an allroudner, he is highly prized for two skills and the way he throws himself around in the field, chasing every lost cause, makes him popular with team-mates, coaches and fans alike. Stoke is the fielder a captain puts in the key position. He is in play throughout the match.
What might Englands stars fetch at the IPL auction?
Stokes himself will not be jumping out of bed at the crack of dawn to follow the auction online. That will be the job of Neil Fairbrother, his agent. Instead he will get up with his two children as usual and then head south to gather with the rest of the England squad before they leave on Wednesday for a short three match ODI tour of the West Indies.
There is an element of luck in the auction. Players have become unlikely millionaires as two teams chase their signature and a bidding war ensues. Just being one of the first buys out of the draw, when teams still have their full purse to spend, can be a massive help. Stokes is not counting the dollar signs just yet.
“I just want to get picked up. That is the main thing about it,” he said. “I asked Jos how it was and he said it is “gun” which is what we (England players) say for awesome. Since he came back from the IPL you can tell from the way he has played he has gone to another level in terms of hitting, his consistency and where he can hit the ball. He has always been able to hit around the ground but playing in the IPL has taken him another level from where he was.
Who shone and who floundered in Englands Twenty20 series defeat in India?
“We are a very strong team England wise but it will be nice to go away somewhere and focus on the skills that I want to get better at in T20 which are hitting the boundary, different areas and different options with the bat. How to bowl in a given situation but then also doing it against the best players in the world that those competitions (IPL) attract. Observing those players as well close up is another big thing. Just being in an environment with these guys, training with them, picking their minds on cricket is the kind of thing you can only benefit from.”
If he takes India by storm Stokes can expect his profile to rocket. The commercial deals like the one he has with Red Bull, will roll in. In fact if he is to get up at 4am on Monday he might need Red Bull to send him a few cans to get himself through the bleary eyed moment when his name pops up on the list. It might help reality sink in if he makes a seven figure sum.
Whatever happens on Monday it will cap an amazing seven days for Stokes who was appointed the England Test vice-captain when Joe Root was promoted to replace Alastair Cook earlier this week.
Root’s appointment was obvious from the moment England left India. Strauss interviewed Stokes but he knew he was never really in with a chance of landing the captaincy himself.
“He was always going to get it. It was quite weird going into a meeting about the England captaincy with it in the back of your mind that it was going to be Rooty. But still I put my points across as well as I needed to.
It is not as if Stokes has had the job sprung on him. He has to wait until July for England to play Test cricket. “Getting told and then wait four or five months until you do the job is a bit weird. Jos asked me the day before we flew out to Bangladesh if I would like to be his vice captain in the one day series. But this time I have four months to let it sink in . I will probably turn up and forget I’m vice captain and then wonder why Rooty is coming up to me and asking me stuff.”
Will he change? “I don’t think so,” he says. Will he tone down the verbals? No but just “not get caught as Trevor Bayliss (the England coach) says. He says do it better if you are going to do it.”
Stokes was encouraged by the coaching team to offer opinions and ideas last winter. He has grown naturally into a leadership role.
“I take a lot of interest in cricket even though it doesn’t always look like I do, “ he said. “Cricket is the one thing I observe a lot. I was never afraid to share an opinion or thought to Cooky. Whether he said yes or no was up to him. I am a good thinker about the game. From that side of cricket I am pretty switched on.”
