Ben Stokes exclusive interview: Shane Warne’s influence and what you’ve got wrong about Bazball
Ben Stokes has revealed how Shane Warne helped inspire his side’s Bazball approach and opened up on what most cricket fans get wrong about England’s mindset.
Ben Stokes has revealed Shane Warne to be one of the major inspirations behind England’s Bazball mentality.
In an exclusive sit-down interview with Fox Cricket host Isa Guha to air on Saturday night on Kayo Sports, Stokes also claimed the Bazball era’s early public protestations that entertainment was more important than winning was a deliberate ruse to take pressure off an England team desperately fighting to find its identity.
WATCH THE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH BEN STOKES AFTER PLAY ON SATURDAY ON FOX CRICKET AND KAYO SPORTS
Stokes opens up about his blueprint for rescuing English cricket and how Warne’s renowned showmanship has influenced the way he wants his team to commit to their fearless style even in the face of disaster, like their meltdown in the first Test in Perth.
“I was so lucky to be able to spend some time with Warney at the IPL when he was there and I was there. One thing that amazed me about listening to him talk about cricket is that every time he was involved in the game, whatever had happened, whatever the outcome of something, even if it went completely wrong for him, he made it a theatre and he made it seem like he knew what he was doing,” Stokes told Guha in the Kayo exclusive.
“I just thought, ‘that’s an unbelievable way of thinking about things.’
“He could bowl a rank long-hop or bowl a full toss but he was like, ‘I carried on in a way that I’ve purposefully done that to try and create something.’
“He just had an amazing ability to be able to create something out of nothing and turn something that’s not actually good into something that’s brilliant. Only Shane Warne will be able to do it in the way that he did it. But listening to him speak about cricket and the way he wanted it to be played, I guess rubbed off on me a lot.”
Bazball and its architects Brendon McCullum and Stokes were parodied heavily at the start of their reign during the 2023 Ashes in the UK for their public rhetoric which claimed England was doing God’s work bringing entertainment to Test cricket even if they squandered match-winning positions to lose.
But Stokes claims now that it was always all about winning for England, but putting on a front was crucial in trying to recreate a new identity for a team and culture that had been completely shattered by their 2021-22 Ashes capitulation in Australia.
“From day one all we wanted to do was win games and that is still the case now,” Stokes told Guha.
“Especially when you’re in sport, it’s a results based business and we obviously want to win everything you do. I want to win everything I take part in.
“But there was a lot of deeper meaning to some of the messages we were saying back at the start because we felt we needed to change how things were viewed within English cricket and we felt we did a good job of that.
“ … (We) thought we needed to potentially change the mindset of English cricket at the time … of how we go out there and play and take fear of failure as much as we possibly could away from players who are playing for England.
“ … Then (in the past 12 months) it was moving the attention away from that and then into, ‘right, everything is about winning.’
“Everything is about winning but there’s a lot that needs to go into playing a game of Test cricket in particular before you see the results. I think one of the most important things about the team and in a team sport is about having an identity as well, and that’s something I think we’ve managed to forge over the last couple of years.
“The desire of me as captain as wanting to win … getting that mentality right to then producing results is all we want to do.
“ … The fact that the guys have become better players under myself and Brendon and Rob Key (cricket director) as well, you take a lot of confidence out of that because that’s all you want to do as the people in charge is to try and almost get players to the level we think they can get to – that they may not think they could get to.
“That’s the main purpose. You can make them believe in themselves and then they’re able to go out there and perform on the biggest stage.”
Stokes, credits the sport of rugby league for shaping him as a competitor, with his father Gerard, a former New Zealand representative and coach.
One of Stokes’ main stresses in life at the moment is his own son, Layton has fallen in love with rugby union.
“I’m trying to get him over to the other side as much as I can but I don’t think I can quite do that,” Stokes lamented.
“Rugby league was a huge thing for me when I was a kid growing up, sport was. I was around professional athletes since I was four, five years of age. I think that’s definitely had some impact on me. I love my rugby league.”
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