Ben Stokes RETIRES – ENG vs SA ODI Series: Ben Stokes has RETIRED from ODI’s. But in a scathing statement, he has asked the administrators of cricket to not treat players like ‘cars’. The allrounder played his last ODI game on Tuesday against South Africa said it was “unsustainable” for him to feature in all three formats. Follow Cricket News updates with InsideSport.IN
“We are not cars. You can’t just fill us up and we’ll go out there and be ready to be fuelled up again. We had a Test series and then the one-day team had a series going on at the same time – that was a bit silly,” Stokes told Test Match Special.
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England have been playing non-stop cricket in the last couple of months. In July along England is playing 17 days of international cricket.
“I just feel like there is too much cricket rammed in for people to play all three formats now. It is a lot harder than it used to be. I look back to when I used to do all three and it didn’t feel like it was as jam-packed and all that. Obviously you want to play as much cricket as you possibly can but when it is making you feel tired, sore.
“The more cricket that is played, the better for the sport, but you want a product that is of the highest quality. You want the best players to be playing as much as you possibly can, all the time, and it isn’t just me or us. You see it all around the world now where teams are having to rest some players in a certain series so they feel like they are getting a break,” he said.
Stokes had taken Test captaincy at the start of the summer. The champion all rounder will continue to give “everything I have” to the longest format, as well as Twenty20.
Stokes scored only 48 runs and bowled only three overs in the ODI series against India, which England lost 1-2.
He said he took the decision to call it quits in the 50-over format after the first game against the Rohit Sharma-led team. “After that one-day game it hit me in the face. A quick chat with Jos [Buttler] after the game, I said that if the game was in a different position I’d have bowled more for him. We had five minutes together, he said you don’t owe the team anything and that I had a lot of cricket coming up. That was nice to hear
“I went away and had five minutes to myself, I told him I almost felt a bit useless that I can’t do that. It’s not a nice feeling, knowing I have to look after myself, the captain is trying to look after me, the medical team and the coach as well. It’s international cricket you can’t be doing that,” said Stokes.
Stokes will also not play in the T20s against South Africa that follow the ODI series. He has also decided to skip The Hundred ahead of the three Tests with the Proteas.
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