Ben Stokes’s first attempt to show England what they are missing in Australia lasted two runs and seven balls on his debut for Canterbury.
Aiming across the line against Otago left-arm spinner Anaru Kitchen, he lost his leg stump to leave his new team reeling at eight for three and provide the unheralded Kitchen with only his 20th wicket in 75 one-day games. In Stokes’s first innings for 10 weeks, it was an understandably rusty shot.
At practice the previous day, he had said he was ‘looking forward to getting out there and hopefully winning’, so the competitive juices are still flowing.
Ben Stokes’ Canterbury debut went far from how he anticipated it would after he is bowled out
The all-rounder was sent walking after lasting just two runs for seven balls in Rangiora
But the problem for England’s Ashes prospects was that he was talking about the opening game of Canterbury’s 50-over Ford Trophy title defence in Rangiora, where the entire population (18,000) could squeeze into Adelaide Oval three times over.
Across the Tasman, Stokes’s England team-mates were taking part in the second Test against Australia. Here in New Zealand, in a quiet town on the east coast of the South Island, the world’s best all-rounder has been doing his penance in the nets, to the sound of birds chirping – and very little else.
Stokes had been soaking up the attention during his preparations for the big day
On the day before the game, he asked a camera crew to move from their position on the outfield behind the bowler’s arms. Otherwise, his interaction with the media was restricted to a few reluctant platitudes in the car park. Otago were so fussed about it all that they cancelled their practice altogether.
It’s possible Stokes has played cricket closer to the middle of nowhere than Rangiora’s MainPower Oval, but then again it probably isn’t. There’s a cemetery opposite, an astroturf hockey pitch next door and a football club down the road. None could be accused of doing a roaring trade.
Stokes is out for two seventh ball. Bowled playing on by left arm spinner Anaru Kitchen
— Nick Hoult (@NHoultCricket) December 2, 2017
As England look to the Ashes second Test, Stokes has been preparing for the Ford Trophy
Inside the pavilion, old team photos of the North Canterbury Cricket Association hang lopsidedly on the wall, a reminder that New Zealand men in the 1970s liked a handlebar moustache.
And out in the middle, Stokes bowled a dozen deliveries at reasonable pace, then had two sessions with the bat – one to get his eye in, the other to launch ball after ball towards the white picket fence, the kind you get at a Home Counties lawn-bowls club.
The English all-rounder has been preparing for the defence with his team-mates
Canterbury’s players and officials sound thrilled to have him here while he awaits the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service over the Bristol brawl that left a man with a fractured eye socket and Stokes, having thrown the punch, with a broken finger. The attitude is one of upbeat buck-passing.
‘Ben is just desperate to play cricket,’ said Canterbury head coach Gary Stead. ‘I hope his performances show why he is regarded as one of the best all-rounders in the world. He really reminded me of a young kid just wanting to get out there and play.
‘There has been more media around, but I don’t see it as a problem. One, it is very good for our game, and secondly it is great for our players to get used to that, because if they want to play higher they will get that extra media speculation about playing for New Zealand.’
Brendon Donkers, who has special responsibility for Canterbury’s white-ball teams, put it this way: ‘Some people are saying we’d be foolish if we didn’t play him, and some say we’d be foolish to play him.
‘But from a cricket perspective it is fantastic – for domestic cricket in this country to have this sort of exposure leading into a Ford Trophy game is outstanding, and that is alongside a Black Caps Test in Wellington and an Ashes Test in Adelaide. The fact our domestic game is on the map is brilliant.’
Stokes, born in Christchurch about 18 miles to the south of Rangiora, mainly kept his head down, as per his agreement with the club that he wouldn’t have to speak to journalists. He did, though, offer a local TV crew a bit of diplomacy before driving away down the Coldstream Road.
‘I’d been working hard back home, so it’ll be good to put into practice,’ he said.
Stokes bowled over a dozen deliveries before taking to the net for two sessions with the bat
Did he sense lots of interest from Cantabrians? ‘Yeah, I think there is. I think it’ll be good for the club as well.’
And what of his new team-mates? ‘It’s the first time I’ve met quite a few of them today. I knew a few of the younger guys because they’d been coming over to Durham on an exchange programme. It is always hard coming into a new team when you’re meeting them for the first time, so it was nice to see a few friendly faces.’
The welcome has not been unanimous. The club’s former captain and New Zealand Test opener Peter Fulton – whose photo adorns the pavilion – suggested Stokes shouldn’t be playing for Canterbury if he couldn’t play for England. He called the situation ‘messy’.
The messiness is compounded by the absence from the Canterbury side of Ken McClure, a 23-year-old batsman who recently pleaded guilty to ‘injuring with reckless disregard’ and awaits his appearance in court.
His Canterbury colleagues sounded thrilled to have Stokes with them, with his coach Gary Stead praising his commitment, claiming: ‘Ben is just desperate to play cricket’
But the ECB issued Stokes with a No Objection Certificate, perhaps in the hope that the wheels of justice would allow him to play in the Ashes. And New Zealand Cricket chose to abide by the decision of the Canterbury Cricket Association, who in turn have an injury crisis and are grateful for the free publicity. Pragmatism has prevailed.
‘I don’t know about the ins and outs with the ECB, but he is keen to be here and keen to play cricket,’ said Donkers, summing it all up.
And while New Zealand cricketers do not sledge with the self-entitlement of their Australian counterparts, Saturday’s Christchurch Press newspaper led with a message from Otago captain Jimmy Neesham: ‘It’s not like Don Bradman is walking out to bat for Canterbury.’
Neesham continued: ‘No one is overawed by him. He’s another player and anyone can get a duck, anyone can get a hundred, and hopefully he gets the former on Sunday.’
Even in a sleepy corner of a sleepy country, Ben Stokes can’t quite get away from it all.
Stead added that the added media attention has not been a problem for the club