Ben Stokes hits back at Australian media, claiming England live ‘rent free’ in Australia’s heads

Ben Stokes has hit back at Australian media for deriding an evangelical team talk he gave during last summer’s Ashes, saying that his England team live “rent free” in their heads.

This week the England and Wales Cricket Board released a three-part behind-the-scenes documentary called Our Take: The Ashes 2023, which follows Australia presenting their side of the story in Prime Video’s The Test.

Our Take takes viewers into the England changing room in the aftermath of the fourth Test at Old Trafford, where two days of persistent rain saw Australia cling on for a draw to confirm that they would retain the Ashes. Australia failed to win the series, despite having been 2-0 up, with England wins in the third Test at Headingley and the fifth at the Kia Oval seeing the series drawn 2-2.

“Everything we’ve done up until now isn’t going to stop because we haven’t managed to win the urn back,” Stokes said in his team talk. “The reward for our work isn’t what we get but what we become.

“And what we have managed to do is we’ve managed to become a sports team that will live forever in the memory of people who were lucky enough to witness us play cricket.

“I know it’s going to be a bit flat, I know it’s going to hurt that we go into the next game [at The Oval] not being able to get the urn back.

“But what we have done is something a lot bigger than any Ashes trophy could ever signify for this team – be the team that everybody will always remember.”

The team talk has drawn widespread derision in Australia, with Fox Cricket running a story with the caption on X, formerly Twitter, saying “...right, yeah, sure”.

Stokes responded, tweeting: “Said this to the team who had watched it rain for 2 days when we had our foot on your throats, just tried to cheer up the disappointment to be honest, but anyways rent free and all that.”

Under the leadership of Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, England have claimed they are “not a results-driven team” and are “in the entertainment business”, comments that have frustrated their own fans and infuriated outsiders in equal measure.

They made a brilliant start two years ago, winning 10 of their first 11 Tests, but have won four of 12 since, including a 4-1 defeat in India earlier this year. They return to action next week against West Indies at Lord’s in a series that represents a changing of the guard, with James Anderson retiring and a new wicketkeeper in Surrey’s Jamie Smith.