Do you ever get the sense that Ben Stokes is a brand guy?
As the entire cricket world rolled its collective eyes at the English Noosa sojourn, here was Ben Stokes frolicking on the beach, rippling but pale rig out in defiance of the steamy Queensland sun, a pair of boardies an energy drink sponsor cap the only protection against the rays.
In his press conference after the second Test defeat, I couldn’t help but notice the whoop on his wrist. Which I’m sure was the point. For the uninitiated, these wellness devices are designed to track your vitals.
A favourite of bio-hackers, the idea is that you can constantly monitor your progress. Always tweaking your inputs, measuring your outputs, striving for the attainment of ethereal wellness perfection.
If we could put a giant whoop on the English cricket team, I wonder what the readings might tell us is required? To the eyes of Brendon Baz McCullum, the answer is less cricket, more beach and a few beers in Noosa.
There is an irony in a captain meticulously in tune with his own levels of stress and exertion, but seemingly disconnected with similar variances in his team.
The Stokes brand in the Bazball era has been something of a cricketing dilettante, thumbing his nose at danger, running into the fire. In moments of tension and pressure, the mantra has been to go ever bigger.
It was jarring then to see the Messiah dig in at the GABBA as Australia took command. Isn’t this the moment where he normally swings or goes down in the process?
Which isn’t to say it wasn’t effective, it was as close to effective as England came in that innings. For a person who understands and aligns himself with brands, it was an odd departure. I can only guess how strange it must have seemed from the English rooms.
Stokes used his multiple post-match media engagements to note that Australia was ‘not a place for weak men’ and nor was his dressing room.
It sounded like a kind of content cross over with Irish writer Cormac McCarthy.
No Country For Weak Men.
In the original, super villain Anton Chigurgh is a one-man buzz saw, wreaking havoc through drug cartels, law enforcement and the general public in pursuit of the story’s flawed hero.
When Bazball was still a cult to cling to, there was an element of Chigurgh to it. A mysterious force that even when it WAS killed, was never dead.
For a philosophy which has boiled down to ‘vibes up and go big’, what does it mean when the brand leader is grinding with the bat and referring to his teammates as weak men?
