Stokes can find his way back to cricket like Warner and Ponting did, or go the Ryder way

By now most people following cricket know that Ben Stokes is in big trouble. The 26-year-old was arrested in Bristol, UK, on September 25 on the suspicion of causing actual bodily harm after getting into a fight outside a bar. The very violent video footage of the incident then put his Ashes tour in doubt as well, as did his broken finger in his right hand which will take at least six weeks to heal.

Even if Stokes is able to go to Australia – England leave at the end of the month – it might not be as easy for him to just switch on to cricket and continue being the fearsome all-rounder he was before this layoff. A widely publicised arrest will not be that easy to forget, especially during an away Ashes tour where crowds and media will be hostile. But can Stokes leave the controversy behind and find his way back to the top of his game?

The England all-rounder can take some heart from the fact that he is not the first high-profile cricketer to be involved in a drunken brawl and certainly not the first to be suspended for a lack of control when it comes to consuming alcohol.

In this regard, he is in good company: Andrew Flintoff, Ricky Ponting, David Warner. But some of these players have cleaned up their act and made it back to the game. In fact, both Aussies on this list actually hit their peak after a reprimand.

Here’s a look at how cricketers recovered after taking a hit due to their drinking habits.

Ricky Ponting

Back in 1999, cricketing great Ricky Ponting became infamous for walking out of a bar in the early hours of the morning with a black eye and having little recollection of what caused it. Only 24, the Australian had played only 20 Tests and 59 One-Day Internationals, but it was already his second incident involving alcohol. He was earlier fined over an incident at nightclub in India a year before.

According to a report in ESPNCricinfo, Ponting had gone to the Bourbon and Beefsteak nightclub in Kings Cross after a win over England at the Sydney Cricket Ground. After the incident, Ponting told the media that he had been drinking heavily, got into a fight, was punched in the face and the next thing he remembers is waking up in his hotel room with a black eye. He also said that he would undergo counselling for his drinking problem.

And he went on to do just that. He cleaned up his act, avoided going out for late nights with the team and went on to become Australia’s most successful captain and one of the best batsmen in the world.

From 1999, Ponting played 146 more Tests made 12,169 runs with 39 centuries in the longest format and 11, 534 runs in 316 ODIs including three World Cups. Safe to say that the best of already prodigious Ponting came after a bar brawl made headlines. Would Stokes follow Ponting’s example?

Andrew Flintoff

Another very famous drunken incident involved another talented but troubled England all-rounder, Andrew Flintoff. He was stripped of the vice-captaincy and banned for one match after being involved in a drunken escapade during the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.

Flintoff, who had been on an eight-hour drinking spree with teammates after England lost their opening match, was founding stumbling in a pedalo in the middle of the sea and had to be helped by staff.

This was not the first time that the talismanic all-rounder’s drunken antics were in public for all to see. He had gone on a 24-hour bender to celebrate England’s historic 2005 Ashes win. But this was the clincher after a series of similar incidents involving the Flintoff who was once the star of the team.

However, eventually, he gave up the lifestyle and said that he stopped the drinking after making a documentary about depression in sport in 2012, which made his realise his own condition.

While he retired just a couple of years later due to recurring injuries and long rehabs, his returns after the 2007 incident weren’t great. He played 23 ODIs, scoring 367 runs and taking 41 wickets, and 12 Tests for 464 runs and 29 wickets. It may or may not have been the partying lifestyle that led to the end of his cricket career, but it did play a part in his reduced on-field performance.

David Warner

This example would probably be the closest to home for Stokes, since the person at the other end of Warner’s drunken punch was his current Test captain Joe Root.

During the Champions Trophy in 2013, Warner was dropped for “an unprovoked physical attack” on Root in the Walkabout bar in Birmingham. The incident occurred when Root pretended to hold the now infamous green and gold wig as a beard, which Warner took objection to. The Australian landed a “glancing blow” on Root, then only 22.

“A mate of mine was actually wearing it on top of his head like a [Lasith] Malinga wig, that’s what it was, and [Root] decided to come in and take it off my mate’s head and start acting the way he did,” Warner told The Guardian later.

“I thought it was a bit inappropriate the way he went about that stuff so I went over and tried to take it off him. I just think in today’s society you shouldn’t be fooling around with that kind of stuff. And he probably didn’t mean anything by it at all but I probably let my aggression and alcohol take over.”

The then 26-year-old was suspended, fined £7,000, sent on Australia A’s tour of Zimbabwe, and kept out till the Ashes that year: a turn of events that could have ended the already struggling career of the aggressive opener. But Warner credits that moment as the turning point in his career.

He has since then turned teetotaler, buried the hatchet with Root, started a family and become one of the most destructive batsmen in world cricket. In fact, 26 of his 31 international centuries have come since that punch up, with 4,442 runs in 47 Tests (and counting) at an average of 51, and 3,137 runs in 62 ODIs since.

Incidentally, it was not only Warner whose cricket career took off since that one punch. Root is also a star in his own right now. And Root will certainly hope that his star player also channelises his aggression in a similar way in time for the Ashes.

Jesse Ryder

New Zealand big-hitter Jesse Ryder’s career was marred to a great extent by incidents involving alcohol. In 2008, he had injured his hand when putting it through a glass window after a drinking session in Christchurch. In 2012, he was dropped from the ODI side after breaking team protocols about alcohol.

The troubled player had then taken an indefinite break from cricket to resolve some personal issues in 2012. But that did not change his drinking habits much. In 2013, he was seriously injured and in an induced coma in hospital after being assaulted twice at Aikman’s Bar in Christchurch.

But he made a comeback to cricket soon after the coma to the surprise of many, and even played ODIs and T20Is for New Zealand, including a one-day century against West Indies in 2014. But the remarkable return didn’t last long and he was dropped after being being investigated by New Zealand Cricket for staying out late at an Auckland bar the night before a Test against India in early 2014.

He has been playing domestic cricket and franchise-based T20 leagues since and even tried his hand at boxing. But fact remains that Ryder’s lifestyle prevented him from achieving his full potential as a cricketer.