Wellington: Star England all-rounder Ben Stokes has revealed that his father Gerard Stokes has been detected with brain cancer and this was the main reason why he quit from the last two Tests against Pakistan earlier this month.
Ben Stokes will not feature again in the #ENGvPAK Test series, as he flies to New Zealand to be with family.
— ICC (@ICC) August 9, 2020
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Stokes has returned to his homeland Christchurch, New Zealand and have been spending quarantine for two weeks. Gerard(Ged) was admitted to hospital in Johannesburg with bleeding on the brain just before England’s Boxing Day test.
He stated that he had no choice but to leave the England team during its recent test series against Pakistan after knowing of his 64-year-old father’s diagnosis.
“I didn’t sleep for a week and my head wasn’t really in it,” Stokes told the Weekend Herald on Saturday (August 29).
He added, “Leaving was the right choice from a mental point of view. Ged Stokes is a former New Zealand rugby league representative who coached for a decade in England, where Ben Stokes was raised from the age of 12.”
“His illness was diagnosed in January when he returned to Christchurch from South Africa where he had been watching England’s four-test series against South Africa.”
Ben was aware that his father was seriously ill when he made 120 against South Africa in the third test at Port Elizabeth, where England won by an innings and 53 runs.
When Stokes this year, scored a century against the West Indies in Manchester, he honoured with a three-finger salute. The sign was a tribute to his father who, during his playing days, sought to have a disjoint finger.
Stokes said, “His reputation sort of speaks for itself. You speak to anyone who knows him, played with him or worked with him, they’d all say the same thing.”
“Most people acquire a softer side with age and sometimes with Dad that has been quite weird to see. What he’s going through has brought that side out as well. We all knew he had it, he just didn’t show it often.” Stokes said his father had a strong influence on his career.
“He was tough, but as I got older I realized it was all for a reason. He knew I wanted to be a professional sportsman and he was drilling that into me as I started to make a career in cricket,” he concluded.
