The English all-rounder, Ben Stokes announced his retirement from the One Day Internationals on Monday. He cited that the hectic schedule forced him to come up with this decision. His announcement sparked a debate over the governing body’s action over its recent schedule and many suggested that it needs a change to ensure a long-lasting career span for all format players.
The English left-handed batter has played a lot of match-winning knocks for his country in the One Day Internationals, the most famous being his innings vs New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup Final. His retirement comes as a hope to extend his Test and T20 career. He revealed that he would continue to play Test and T20 formats.
Following his announcement, the former England captain, Nasser Hussain criticized the Cricket’s governing body and said that it needs a change at the very moment. Many cricket fans indeed agreed with his opinion and now, the Cricket’s governing body are due to come up with an answer. Stokes will be playing his final ODI vs South Africa on Tuesday.
“It is disappointing news, to say the least, but it is a reflection of where the cricketing schedule is at the moment. It is madness for players,” Nasser criticized the calendar of the governing body. “If the ICC just keeps putting on ICC events and individual boards just keep filling the gaps with as much cricket as possible, eventually these cricketers will just say ‘I’m done.’,” told Nasser Hussain to Sky Sports as he expressed his displeasure.
He added that Stokes did have a few more years of ODI cricket left in him and if not for the ‘unsustainable’ workload, he would have continued to represent England for a few more years. He even added that the ODI cricket alone needs to be looked at as people are already loving the Test and T20 format.
“It looks like 50-over cricket is the one everyone is looking at because everyone loves Test match cricket and everyone loves T20 cricket,” Hussain said.
