Cape Town — Among the enduring memories of the 2019 World Cup final is of Ben Stokes raising his hands apologetically after the ball ricocheted off the shoulder of his bat to the Lord’s boundary.
It was a critical moment in England and Stokes’ destiny. A Super Over later and Stokes and England were world champions.
But less than 12 months out of an opportunity to help England defend their World Cup crown, Stokes, 31, will quit ODI’s after the series-opener against the Proteas on Tuesday before his hometown supporters at Chester-le-Street.
England’s Test captain claims it's "just unsustainable for me now" and that he wants to give "everything I have to Test cricket" and "my total commitment to the T20 format".
It was only last week that Cricket South Africa shook the game’s foundation when they withdrew the Proteas from an ODI series in Australia in favour of staging a domestic T20 tournament.
Now arguably the game’s most high-profile men’s star outside of the subcontinent has thrown in the 50-overs towel. The message has been delivered in no uncertain terms to the ICC suits in Dubai that the once-bright lights of ODI cricket are flickering fast.
The fact that this series has no ICC Super League points on offer further adds to the frustration.
Proteas stand-in ODI captain Keshav Maharaj is certainly in favour of a Super League, which in any case will be terminated under the new the Future Tours Programme cycle, but also believes this series will be important for the development of his team.
"It's good to have the Super League. It makes you play your best cricket throughout the year and allows you to come up with various styles of play that you want to implement at the World Cup. I think it's a good system. You've got to play your best team at all times. I'm in favour of it," Maharaj told reporters on Monday.
"But it's also important for us as an ODI unit to keep playing together. The more you play the better you get. It's still an international cricket game, so there's enough motivation. And it's build-up for a series that does carry points. I'm so glad we're playing it leading up to an important summer and year for us. In the next two years there are a lot of ICC events coming up, and it's a nice way of finding combinations you want to play going forward."
Further motivation for Maharaj and his men is the fact that the Proteas’ have never won a white-ball bilateral ODI series in England.
“I was actually made aware of it not so long ago, so yeah, it does present us with an opportunity to do something special as a unit. I think we've come a long way in all facets of the game as a team,” he said.
“So, it is an opportunity for us to create history as a team, but we are gonna take it one ball at a time, one game at a time, and, you know, hopefully we can cross over the line and achieve something really big as an ODI unit.”
The Proteas’ chances of starting on a positive note received a boost with Quinton de Kock, who retired from Test cricket at the end of last year also due to a schedule overload, having recovered from his hand injury that saw him miss last week’s two warm-up games in Taunton and Worcester respectively.
LIKELY TEAMS FOR CHESTER-LE-STREET
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Janneman Malan, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram/Kyle Verreynne, David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen, Andile Phehlukwayo, Keshav Maharaj (captain), Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi.
England: Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (capt & wk), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, David Willey, Craig Overton, Brydon Carse, Reece Topley.