“Ben is a better person than he was before Bristol, without a doubt. He changed it for the better,” Fairbrother says poignantly in the documentary. But the scrutiny, being judged by one and all, and all the theories about what happened that night took their toll on Stokes.
In July 2021, Fairbrother was the person on the other end of the phone when Stokes collapsed in his bathroom one morning. Fairbrother says that when Stokes called him, he couldn’t breathe, he was crying and he was practically incoherent.
“You can’t pick and choose when something like this will happen. Suddenly, I didn’t say, ‘You know what? I’m going to be very anxious and I’m going to have a panic attack in my bathroom today,'” says Stokes, who admits in the film that the panic attacks had gotten worse since his father passed away. “It just happens. It was my body. and my mind reacting to so many things over a long period of time. It all became too much for me.”
Since taking that break and reaching out for help, Stokes today looks like a man in a much better place. Having previously labeled himself “not very talkative”, he is now unafraid to speak up on behalf of all those who don’t speak up and struggle. “People say it’s a sign of weakness. Fuck you,” he says. “It’s stronger to come out and say how you feel instead of hiding behind this bravery of ‘I can’t show that I’m fighting mentally because it’s weak.’ It’s not weak, it’s stronger.
“However, journalists still tell me: ‘You have to come across as a big, tough guy, since you have a lot of tattoos and stuff,’” he smiles. “And I’m like, yeah, exactly. I’m tough.”
Sunday, August 25, 2019. It is 4:17 p.m. With the sun beating down on Headingley cricket ground, Stokes is standing in the middle of the pitch, hands on his head, trying to comprehend what has just happened. The capacity crowd is raving; 20,000 fans in dreamland, shocked and elated by what they just witnessed. England, sorry Stokes, I had just done the unthinkable, the impossible.
His teammates duly harass him, and the cameras catch things like: “Damn beauty!” Y. “My God, that was amazing!”
At the press conference that follows, England captain Joe Root addresses the press and jokes: “Do you need me, or do we just bring Ben here?”
It was Stokes’ defining moment of glory, all captured in Phoenix from the Ashes. The day before, with his 24.2 overs (eight more than anyone else), Stokes went down until Australia was out, restricting his lead to 359. It was a ground chase that would require breaking records. Nobody thought of anything other than avoiding a defeat that would make England lose the Ashes. Except Stokes.
England dug deep and put on a dogged display, with Root putting in a spirited 77, but a batting collapse from ‘the same England’ left Stokes needing 76 runs with one wicket remaining. What happened next is largely written in cricket folklore. Aided admirably by the antics of Jack Leach (who hit a solo run), Stokes produced the greatest innings of all time to turn a certain loss into a resounding victory. In the crease for five and a half hours and facing 219 balls from some of the best bowlers in the world, Stokes batted 135 and didn’t out. He had it all; eight sixes, 11 bounds sprayed all over the field, missed catches, failed appeals and failed runs.
Source: www.gq-magazine.co.uk