The return only lasted one game. Three days, really, given that before the fourth day of the third Test between England cricket and New Zealand cricket at Trent Bridge, Ben Stokes had informed his teammates he was retiring at the end of the Test. And then, perhaps typically, he launched into a final, marathon spell with the ball, 11 overs in the heat.
At least it was a more fitting finale than a night out where he broke his own curfew, even if the two were inextricably linked. With his first ball after the Nottingham crowd heard the news, he took a wicket; not for the first time with Stokes, Graham Gooch’s question to Ian Botham – “who writes your scripts?” – came to mind. More than virtually any other cricketer, Stokes wrote his own, and some were too improbable to come from the realms of fiction. The story isn’t over; the full tale of his retirement is still to emerge, but every chapter of his career was captivating.
