The moment Ben Stokes took a wicket moments after announcing his retirement at 3.25pm on Sunday was pure theatre – but the England captain said the decision to walk away was "the best thing" for him, ending a 15-year international career on Monday.
Stokes made the stunning announcement on the fourth day of the deciding Test against New Zealand at Trent Bridge, revealing his final match will be his last for England after 122 Tests, 114 one-day internationals and 43 T20s.
“Ben Stokes will retire from international cricket after the New Zealand Test, saying the decision is 'best thing' for him.”
"It might sound quite selfish but this decision is genuinely the best thing for me right now," the 35-year-old told Sky Sports. "I hope it's the best thing for the team going forward but I also hope it's what will allow me to keep loving this game that has given me so much."
Stokes denied the announcement was a direct result of being made unavailable for the second Test after an incident in a London nightclub, but confirmed it "added" to thoughts of retirement that had been building since England's 4-1 Ashes defeat in Australia.
He said he had first considered quitting during the first Test of the summer at Lord's, which brought back "negative feelings" about his career. "I'd worked so hard since getting home to put things right, or at least that's what I thought I was doing," he said. "I put so much time and effort into doing that and I just burned myself out."
Kevin Garside, chief sports correspondent for iNews and former media manager of the company that represented Stokes, recalled a meeting in 2011 where the then-young cricketer refused to take advice on managing his public profile. "He looked at me as he has every one of his victims since, just another batter to knock over," Garside wrote. "There was no way of knowing just how impactful his career might be, just a sense an unanswerable, uncontrollable singularity was among us."
During the week he missed the second Test, Stokes played for Durham and said returning to his county rekindled his love for the game. He confirmed he will continue to play domestic cricket.
"Being back at Durham, when I w…" he began in the BBC interview, before the quote was cut short. His career will end with one more day at Trent Bridge, a fittingly dramatic finale for a player Garside described as a "superhuman who only ever listened to his own voice."