Stokes created moments and the moments are no more

Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Ben Stokes has quit international cricket after a 15-year career packed with special moments By Stephan Shemilt Cricket Correspondent at Trent Bridge Published 34 minutes ago Naturally, there are numbers. More Test runs than Graham Thorpe and Denis Compton, more caps than David Gower and Geoffrey Boycott. More wickets than Darren Gough and Steve Harmison, at a better strike-rate than James Anderson and Ian Botham. More Tests as captain than Mike Brearley and Raymond Illingworth. More Test sixes than any other man on the planet. But Ben Stokes is a cricketer of more than mere numbers, even if his final Test tallies of 7,273 runs and 252 wickets leave him in the same statistical bracket as Sir Garfield Sobers and Jacques Kallis, bona fide legends. Stokes is a cricketer of moments. 'I was there' moments. 'I know where I was when...' moments. 'I cannot believe he has done that' moments. As long as he is there, 'I believe' moments. More moments than any other England cricketer? Certainly the most since Botham. Perth 2013 and Cape Town 2016. Lord's and Headingley in that glorious summer of 2019, and Melbourne 2022. Masterminding all-time great wins in Rawalpindi and Hyderabad. 'I'm done' - Stokes rules out reversing retirement Published 2 hours ago Stokes' England career ends with NZ series defeat Published 3 hours ago To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video can not be played Figure caption, How England won an incredible Cricket World Cup final The lad born in Christchurch and made in Cumbria, who became one of the most influential figures in English cricketing history. The flame-haired tearaway who recovered from being hit for four successive sixes to lose a T20 World Cup final and an incident in Bristol that almost cost him his career to become one of the most significant figures in modern British sport. England men's teams do not win World Cups of any kind very often. Those who have engineered those wins are immortals of their game - Sir Geoff Hurst, Jonny Wilkinson. Stokes has done it twice - the 50-over triumph in 2019 and the T20 title in 2022. When Stokes was involved - at the crease, or launching himself into another tireless spell - there was hope. Where will the hope come from now? Most athletes dream of leaving one lasting legacy. Stokes leaves two. The first is of the superhero all-rounder, continuing a lineage of Botham and Andrew Flintoff. Stokes' era of match-altering influence lasted longer than either of his forefathers, an achievement made more remarkable given his existence in the three-format generation. He is a cricketing giant, though without the same level of superstardom as his predecessors, probably a result of an entire international career being played on pay TV. Stokes' on-field presence is equal in size to Botham's and Flintoff's, yet he is more of an introvert off it. He will not end up in the House of Lords or presenting TV shows. To play this