Black Caps v England: Breakdown in relations led to Ben Stokes’ captain’s call to retire

Monday, 29 June 2026

Ben Stokes’ shock exit from international cricket on Monday (NZT) was triggered by a combination of a lack of fire left for the job and an increasingly strained relationship with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

While the tension’s origins trace back several months to the disastrous Ashes tour of Australia, the saga culminated in Stokes’ frustrations about how the ECB had handled the aftermath of the incident at a Chelsea nightclub and, by his own admission, an inability to recapture the hunger and desire needed to continue with captaincy and international cricket.

In the immediate aftermath of the Rex Rooms incident in the early hours of June 8, the ECB board and senior officials are understood to have been concerned about the way that Stokes was behaving at Lord’s but also enraged about him being involved in a late-night incident which caused embarrassment to the governing body so soon after the accusations in the winter that the team were irresponsible and that there was a drinking culture.

It is understood that in the heat of the immediate days after the incident, there were some at the ECB who wanted him stripped of the captaincy but that any decision on whether he continued to play should be left to him.

Two days after the initial nightclub revelations, there was nervousness at the ECB that Stokes would make a retirement announcement via his own social media.

While the investigations into the incident were going on, talks were ongoing about Stokes’ future and the ECB refused to give any public backing to him remaining as captain. Even before the events at the Rex Rooms nightclub, some within the ECB believed he had run his race as captain but were also acutely aware that Stokes had the backing of the public.

Rob Key, England’s managing director, in a press conference three days after the news of the nightclub incident was released, dodged several questions asking him to back Stokes as captain going forward.

Head coach Brendon McCullum similarly failed to back Stokes to be in charge of the Test team - instead repeating seven times in a press conference that he was “concerned for” and “worried about” him.

During the Oval Test, which Stokes had been forced to sit out by the ECB and when it became clear that the regulator was likely to find that there was no wrongdoing by either Stokes or Gus Atkinson, a compromise situation was being sought that would allow Stokes to return as captain for the final Test of the series but without any commitment to his future.

Although there were still some within the ECB who believed he should never captain an England side again, the initial anger had dissipated and been replaced by some concern about both his welfare and whether it was right for either Stokes or the team for him to remain as captain. A senior official told The Times that a “sensible solution” had been found. On the fourth day of the Oval Test, it became clear that having been cleared by the cricket regulator of any wrongdoing and that the rules around the curfew had not been made explicit, Stokes could return to play and captain the final Test. However, he is understood to have been angry about how the incident had been handled by the governing body and believed that there were some within the ECB who had been briefing against him and understood he no longer had the backing of some senior ECB officials.

Doubts about the future of the Stokes-McCullum era had already crept in during the Ashes when it was clear that the pair, who had previously seemed utterly on the same page in terms of approach and philosophy, were no longer aligned.

The Ashes review by the ECB at the end of that series discussed captaincy and leadership but at that stage there was no sense that anyone thought Stokes should not carry on. Questions, though, had been raised about whether the series had taken its toll on him and whether the relationship with McCullum had become too damaged.

Stokes then had an extended break between January during which Key, McCullum and the ECB started to implement the outcomes of their Ashes review including extending the number of backroom staff - something McCullum had pared right back and which Stokes had asked to be extended - he seemed to have won that battle.

One source told The Times: “Ben felt let down during the Ashes. He had poured his heart and soul and placed all his emphasis and emotion into winning the Ashes. He wanted it to be his legacy. He felt like only a few of them were taking the whole thing seriously and when the series started to go so badly, he made his feelings known to McCullum, Key, the players and the ECB top brass although there was a feeling among some of the ECB officials that Stokes had started to make it all about himself.”

But with an extended break after the end of the Ashes, it had been hoped that maybe the heat would go out of the situation and everyone could return to being aligned even if the philosophy and approach had been refined.

Stokes himself had given an interview to the ECB's in-house media team in which he said he was committed to leading England, could not wait to return and, in a social media post, he said: “I just f***ing love Test cricket.”

The serious facial injury that Stokes suffered in March after being hit by a ball in the Durham nets is understood to have had more of an effect on the England captain than he has admitted publicly. In his media interactions before and after the Lord’s Test, it was noted that Stokes seemed edgy and prickly and, by his own admission, said that he wasn't right and that the Ashes loss had taken its toll on him.

“I felt like I’ve been pretty good throughout my career at overcoming on-field disappointment,” he told Sky Sports. “Then the emotional side of this since Australia - I said it to my wife: ‘I don't actually think I have any more fight left in me to get over this to be honest’. Then when I got to that week at Lord’s, it brought back some negative feelings about where I was in my career.”

Stokes is on a central contract worth over £1 million (NZ$2.34m) a year, due to run until the end of next year’s Ashes. It is understood he will receive a portion of its remaining value as a golden handshake.

– The Times, London