In 2019, as widely anticipated, England cricketer Ben Stokes was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, ahead of racing driver Lewis Hamilton and athlete Dina Asher-Smith. Also on the shortlist were footballer Raheem Sterling, heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson and rugby union player Alun Wyn Jones.
New Zealand-born Stokes, then 28, became the first cricketer to win the award since Andrew Flintoff in 2005. Accepting his award from the Princess Royal and former footballer Denis Law, Stokes said, “Two years ago [when he was arrested and tried for affray, but eventually found not guilty] was a tough time for me in my life and I’ve had so many people help me through that.” In particular, he singled out his agent, former England batsman Neil Fairbrother, whom he described as an “incredible man”.
Over the course of 11 ICC Cricket World Cup innings, Stokes scored 465 runs, at an average of 66.42. In the final, against New Zealand at Lord’s in July, he scored 84 not out off 98 balls, including five fours and two sixes, thereby lifting England from a perilous 86-4 to 241 all out. With the scores tied after 50 overs, for the first time in World Cup history, a ‘super over’ was required to determine the winner. Stokes contributed a further eight runs to a total of 15 in that super over and, with the scores tied again, England won the trophy on boundaries scored.
Further batting heroics followed a month later, in the third Ashes Test at Headingley. Skittled out for a paltry 67 in the first innings, England were set a target of 356 to win. Stokes contributed 135 not out, including a final-wicket stand of 76 with left-arm spinner Jack Leach (who contributed 1 not out off 17 balls), which earned comparison with the exploits of Ian Botham at the same venue back in 1981, giving England victory by one wicket. Australia won the fourth Test, thereby retaining the Ashes, but Stokes’ innings at Headlingley was widely recognised as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, in the history of Test cricket.