Ben Stokes broke down the barriers of sport twice in 43 days and put English cricket back on the map

There are too few cricketers among the past winners of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. On Sunday, the sport should add one more, but for the first time in a long while it no longer needs SPOTY’s approval

There’s a moment within the confines of changing rooms after incredible wins when the jubilation and celebrations gives way for pure, blissful silence.

It comes about organically, as grand exertions of body and mind create an almost meditative state of exhaustion. Some players let it wash over them, catching their breath while staring through the floor. Others smile blankly at each other with that kind of wide-eyed glee of commuters sharing a look when a dog gets on the train.

It does not last for long, with the silence usually broken by a “what the hell just happened?!” or some incoherent guttural cheer as that wave of euphoria returns again. Twice this summer that calm was broken by someone looking over at a sweaty, brawny redhead and uttering the words: “F****** hell, Stokesy”.

Even months on from one of most breathtaking English seasons brought to life by one of its most life-giving cricketers, those three words tell the story better than these could. Of the skill, courage and execution witnessed in a sport where very few who dedicate their lives to it ever find that perfect blend of all three at any one time. And yet Ben Stokes was able to do so twice in 43 days.

For the events of 14 July and 25 August, a World Cup won and an Ashes series saved, Stokes will enter BBC Sports Personality of the Year’s gala on Sunday as the standout favourite. He would be the first cricketer to take the individual award since Andrew Flintoff in 2005.

Like Flintoff and cricket’s previous winner Ian Botham (1981), the 28-year-old’s true feat was not in his runs or wickets but how he was able to break the barriers of the sport. That in part comes through a Roy of the Rovers tag bestowed on all English allrounders, but only those three have been able to carry it with distinction. As a nation we’re suckers for the men and women who drag our teams to greater heights. Stokes, twice, did just that.

England’s men had never won a 50-over World Cup until he, through some otherworldly bloody-mindedness (and a large dollop of luck) found 84 runs in a chase of 241 and then, upon returning to the Lord’s dressing room, skin and eyes blood-rushed red, announced he’d be back out batting for the Super Over.

At Headingley, all seven of his batting partners on that final day were greeted with a fist-bump and a run-through of exactly how they were going to knock off their target of 359. It says a lot about Stokes’ belief that the message did not dilute as the situation grew more precarious as each came and went, and even more about the way he imbues others with power that the last of them, No 11 Jack Leach, believed him unequivocally.

He must have spoken to the crowds, too. Because while there was angst at Lord’s, those at Leeds were fully onboard with the miracle taking place. They were in full voice for the five hours, dialling it down for each heave they weren’t sure would make it over the fence, and then back up when it cleared. Come to think of it, what truly encapsulates how much those at the ground trusted Stokes was the rush to the bar when Leach came in. Each wicket was a drinks break, never a step closer to the end.

Looking back at those summer days, of tears at Lord’s, limbs at Trafalgar Square, euphoria across clubhouses and sizeable bits on social media, there is a real sense things have changed for the better because of what Stokes helped achieve.

Had England not won the final, Sky Sports’ sharing of the rights with Channel 4 would not have had the profound effect it had given this is a country that while getting behind its national teams is pretty sick of also-rans. If Australia triumphed at Headingley, the Ashes would be theirs outright in England for the first time since 2001, and English cricket would have put its tail between its legs, apologised for any inconvenience caused and sidled off into the darkness once more. Its best shot of correcting itself after years of hampering its own development, ruined.

In many ways, Stokes was perhaps the only cricketer who could have elicited that change.

Stokes is set to join Laker, Steele, Botham and Flintoff as a cricket SPOTY winner (Getty) (Getty Images)

The worst people to sell you on cricket are cricket fans. It needs to be consumed to be understood, not explained. For all the red tape, it is a sport that undulates wildly and works its way to a crescendo that is, at times, like no other. That needs to be experienced first-hand, and it took a generational talent with ice running through his veins to show those who hadn’t clocked it yet that cricket is something to know about. To boast about.

Stokes, now, transcends merely cricket. People know who he is. Maybe in part because of the incident outside a Bristol nightclub in September 2017. But certainly after two magic moments, two more front pages and a swathe of television appearances later. Here he stands, the most recognisable active England cricket celebrity since Freddie.

The reason that is important is most evident when it comes to Sunday as cricket has a peculiar inferiority complex which SPOTY unwittingly exacerbates.

Only four other cricketers have won the main award and, since 2010, only six players (five men, one woman) have been nominated. That lack of representation has always translated to a lack of importance.

It should have soon its fifth winner. For Stokes it’ll be recognition of the work he has put in: those extra sprints in every training session, the punishing hours in the gym after a bad day, the strive to build superhuman skill and endurance to ensure he would never let his team down again.

But for the sport, which saw a surge in five to eight year-olds taking it up after the World Cup and even more eyes tuning in during and following those heroics at Headingley, it is a chance to be proud of what it is and how in a world with so many distractions it was able to be the most important thing going. Twice.

The landscape looks healthier, and should the Hundred do what it is designed to do – the mother of all ifs – the foundations of a prosperous future will have been laid by what Stokes did in 2019.

The ECB will have prepped the press releases and online graphics ahead of Sunday’s announcement, and many more cricket fans will be tuned into BBC One than usual. But cricket, for the first time in a while, does not need SPOTY’s approval - thanks to Ben Stokes.