In a recent documentary on the 2023 Ashes, England captain Ben Stokes extolled his team’s brand of Test cricket so much so that he ranked the approach ahead of results claiming it will ‘live forever in the memory of people who were lucky enough to witness’ them play.
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Stokes was speaking to his teammates in the dressing room during the 4th Test if the five-match series against Australia at home last year.
“Everything we’ve done up until now isn’t going to stop because we haven’t managed to win the urn back,” Stokes said in a clip from the documentary. “The reward for our work isn’t what we get but what we become, and what we have managed to do is we’ve managed to become a sports team that will live forever in the memory of people who were lucky enough to witness us play cricket.”
“I know it’s going to be a bit flat, I know it’s going to hurt that we go into the next game not being able to get the urn back, but what we have done is something a lot bigger than any Ashes trophy could ever signify for this team: be the team that everybody will always remember,” he added.
Responding to Stokes’ motivational speech, former Australia captain Tim Paine feels remarks have slightly been taken out of context but did add that England are living in their own bubble with a belief that their somehow changing the way Test cricket is played when it’s not the case.
“I think it was taken slightly out of context because he was talking in a changing room and it was a bigger speech, so I will say that,” Paine said on SEN Tassie Breakfast.
“However, it’s just this continued belief that they’re completely changing the game and they’re doing this amazing stuff and everyone’s going to remember it … they’re not,” he added.
Paine pointed out England’s current standing on the ICC World Test Championship points table where they are currently 9th in the nine-team competition.
“You’re coming dead last in the World Test Championship. You’re not going to be a team that everyone remembers watching and you’re not doing anything outrageously good that we haven’t seen before,” Paine said.
“You’re an average cricket team. You are, at the moment, a below-average cricket team and I think they need to get their head around that a little bit,” he added.
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