Stephen Fleming: Ben Stokes will stay retired from England

Nick HoultSun, September 20, 2026 at 7:00 AM UTC

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Ben Stokes has enjoyed the second half of his summer inspiring Durham to promotion - Getty Images/Stu Forster

Stephen Fleming believes Ben Stokes is “really happy” playing for Durham and will not reverse his decision to retire from international cricket.

Fleming spent his first week as England Test coach driving up and down the country visiting county coaches and met with Stokes during Durham’s game against Worcestershire.

Stokes retired abruptly at the end of the New Zealand series in June and has since thrown himself into Durham’s Division Two promotion campaign. A dramatic return in time for the Ashes next summer is looking less likely following England’s successful start under new captain Joe Root, but the spectre of Stokes will hang over the team if results take a downturn and he is playing well in county cricket.

Fleming knows Stokes from working with him at Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL), as well as their strong New Zealand connections, and it is instructive that one of his first tasks in a brief, 10-day visit was to seek him out.

“I went up to Durham, spoke to Ben, which was good. I’ve worked with Ben quite a bit. We’ve got a really good relationship. He was in a good space. He’d just bowled another 20 overs for Durham with success. He’s really happy and seemed to be really at peace with his decision, so it was good to see him,” Fleming said. “He seems really happy and comfortable with what he’s doing. My view – when a player decides to retire it’s a big decision, and I have the utmost respect for that decision, so that’s where it sits.”

Fleming was at Old Trafford on Saturday for England’s third T20 against Sri Lanka - Getty Images/Matthew Lewis

Root is just one series into his second spell as captain, but during the 3-0 win over Pakistan it looked as if England were building a new team and culture, moving on from the Bazball years of Stokes and Brendon McCullum. The team batted more within themselves and the Brydon Carse incident in Derby gave Root the opportunity to lay down the law to the players.

Fleming will be strong on discipline and his comments about the “way players represent” England was a thinly veiled warning that he will not tolerate the off-field headlines that have dogged the team since the end of last year.

“It was summed up for me when I watched Joe in the press conference [before Lord’s] – and when Joe Root voices his displeasure at the behaviour, I think that says it all. There’s work to be done. And that comes back to identity and making sure we’re tying into something a bit bigger than oneself.”

Carse learnt on Friday he will not face any charges after Derbyshire Police ended their investigation, but he is now the subject of a Cricket Regulator disciplinary case. He has not been picked by England since the incident and his international future is in doubt.

Brydon Carse must meet England’s new standards if he is to have an international future - Getty Images/Stu Forster

“Yeah, he is available,” Fleming said. “There are standards. We pick on runs and wickets primarily, but I think it’s foolish not to also say there are standards that need to be set. We’ve just got to be careful that the people who represent us are the people the club cricketers, the people that follow English cricket are proud to have us wearing the lions.”

Fleming was not England’s No 1 choice as Test head coach, but once Andy Flower pulled out, his long-term relationship with McCullum played in his favour. He says he is relishing the Ashes next summer, but has ambitions beyond beating Australia: to take the team back to No 1 for the first time since 2011 and win the World Test Championship, a competition England have largely ignored.

“I would love to be in charge of the No 1 Test team in the world. That would be my aspiration. I know the marquee events – the Ashes – are something I can’t wait for. As a New Zealander I have watched and loved the Ashes all my cricketing life, so to be part of that is an absolute highlight, so I can’t wait for that,” he said.

“But there is a piece of work there that has already begun which is around our identity. There has been a lot of coverage around that. The way players represent England and the group is going to be really important to me. The style of play will come with that also. That will be more player directed, but I feel very strongly about finding a sense of belonging within the group and that will take a bit of time.”

Fleming said he was unable to take up his role before the Pakistan series because of family and business commitments put in place when he left Chennai. He declined to name his backroom team and changes to the set-up are expected in the coming weeks, before Fleming’s first tour of South Africa later this year.

Fleming, 53, has a four-year contract and is one of the most respected and experienced coaches in the game. However, he has never coached in red-ball cricket and spent the last 18 years at Chennai in the IPL. He has catching up to do.

“I really loved the positive play and the freeing up of the England players [under McCullum] which was deemed to be a bit of a hurdle. The other thing is when you do something that changes the landscape, others catch up and there’s no doubt the other teams all of a sudden put a lot of attention on how to stop England and to combat what they were doing. There are key times in a match when you have to be really smart. Maybe we can just work a bit harder on that and combine that with the positive nature of the players.”

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With Fleming, England finally have a grown-up in the room

When asked what “Flemball” might look like, Stephen Fleming had a ready-made answer: “That’s a medical condition.”

Apt because England’s Test cricket needs some major surgery if they are to fulfil Fleming’s aim of becoming the No 1 team in the world after a year of chaos and boozing stories.

Brendon McCullum hated the word Bazball and knew when it was thrust on him that he would be judged by something he had not coined, but it was a useful shorthand for the positive, refreshing way his team approached Test cricket for the first two years of his tenure.

The failure to evolve over the next couple of years culminated in the Ashes debacle and Fleming’s job is to build on the good bit of Bazball – the ambition to win from ball one, rather than just avoid defeat – but also inject some grown-up thinking; perhaps even make it a bit more boring by driving home that there is more than one way to win.

History suggests the odds are against him. Split-coaching has been tried before by England and failed as coaches put their own needs first and fell out over resources. But if anyone can make split-coaching work, it is Fleming. He navigated the politics of the Indian Premier League and demanding owners for a staggering 18 years, so knows how to play a long game whilst getting his own way.

He will be better equipped to deal with his white-ball colleague because his relationship with McCullum runs deep. He agreed he is the older-brother figure after their years in the New Zealand side and sources who know both men say he is the one person McCullum will always defer to. They do not have to spend months getting to know each other as they work out their own priorities. “I’ll bet on the favourite and he’ll bet on the longest odds possible,” was how Fleming assessed their different personalities. “I’m more measured.”

Friends Brendon McCullum and Fleming could buck the trend of split-coaching backfiring - Getty Images/Nathan Stirk

At Chennai his success was in part because he clicked with MS Dhoni, a strong-minded captain. Joe Root is not as authoritative as Dhoni, but he and Fleming are alike as thoughtful, meticulous cricketers and appear to have quickly established a good working relationship, despite Fleming being on the other side of the world for the Pakistan series. They chatted daily and met this week.

One notable difference already is Fleming’s emphasis on the World Test Championship that Ben Stokes treated with barely concealed contempt. Despite hosting every final, England have never come close to qualifying; instead, the Ashes and, to a lesser extent, series against India, were the yardsticks of success and everything else was just preparation for those challenges.

England did not help themselves with constant points deductions for poor over rates, but instead of addressing why they were being punished, Stokes would instead complain about the system.

“It comes down to identity and style of play,” Fleming said on the over rates. “And if that’s one of the pinnacle trophies in world cricket, why would we not be trying to get it along with every other marquee event that comes our way?”

Fleming takes over a team at a different stage in their development compared to McCullum in 2022. Then he had James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes and Root to provide experience, and they all looked up to Stokes, so were willing to embrace his changes.

Fleming has a much younger team with unproven players, but there are reasons for optimism. The four-pronged seam attack is building nicely. Harry Brook is the world’s No 1 batsman who wants to adapt to go to the next level. Jacob Bethell and Jordan Cox are rising players who appear to relish the stage of international cricket. Jamie Smith improved immeasurably as a keeper and that confidence should help his batting, which still has rich potential. The gaps in the side – a front-line spinner and consistent opener – have existed for years.

Fleming can help take Harry Brook’s batting to the next level - Getty Images/Oli Scarff

Franchise cricket provides coaches with lucrative employment, but contact with players can be brief, just a few weeks, before they move on to the next gig. With England, Fleming has time to build something that can last, which could bring out the best in a man of his strategic thinking.

At 53, he grew up in an era before T20 and learnt the game in Test cricket. He left New Zealand in much better shape when he stood down as Test captain than when he started, and a lot of their stability and success since then has flowed from the work Fleming did in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

One area was discipline and there is a hard side to Fleming, which players will be wise to recognise quickly. The culture had drifted under McCullum and Stokes, with players unable to recognise that their own selfish actions had wider consequences for the team. Putting the collective above the individual is one of Fleming’s first priorities.

It may well be a little more boring watching England compared to the early Bazball days, but that is not a bad thing as long as they turn Fleming’s aim of being No 1 into reality.

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