Ben Stokes: It’s tough to see the backlash against England’s footballers

England’s football team have been criticised for their performance at Euro 2024, despite reaching the semi-finals

Ben Stokes admitted it was difficult to see the criticism of the English football team (Getty Images)

Ben Stokes admitted he has found it difficult to see the ‘backlash’ England’s footballers have received at times during the European Championships.

England reached the semi-finals of Euro 2024 after a perfect penalty shootout to secure victory over Switzerland, and face the Netherlands in the semi-finals on Wednesday.

Plastic beer cups have been thrown at Gareth Southgate, who has also been the target of pointed comments from high-profile pundits, and the camp as a whole has faced a battle to drown out the wall of noise.

England Test captain Stokes has been subject to criticism himself and was invited to speak to the England footballers before they left, in part because of the Bazball culture of positivity surrounding the team.

Gareth Southgate (Getty Images)

“It’s not surprising is it?” Stokes said when asked about the criticism surrounding Southgate’s men.

“I love watching sport, I want all English teams to do well whatever sport it may be, so as a professional sportsman myself I find it quite tough to see the backlash that the footballers have gotten and they always seem to get, but they’re in the semi-finals of the Euros, they’ve done what they needed to do to get to where they are now.

“You think about something that me and Brendon (McCullum) have tried to do is just to sort of relax everyone and tell everyone just to keep the noise out, you know, the dressing room is the more important thing.

“And sometimes it is, when you’re an outsider like I am from the England football team, it’s tough to see that kind of stuff because I know that all that scrutiny and the added pressure that can come from that side isn’t going to help that team go out there and maybe perform as well as they would like to.

“I know the public and I know everyone wants to see English sports teams do really well, but just from my point of view, I just find it tough sometimes when you say you want them to do really well, but then you’re very quick to hammer down on them.

“But I understand because of how passionate this country is about seeing their teams do well.”

James Anderson will play his 188th and final Test match at Lord’s this week (Steven Paston/PA Wire)

England’s cricketers are expected to gather at their hotel base to watch the match, which will take place on the opening day of their first Test match of the summer against the West Indies at Lord’s.

The occasion itself is expected to be overshadowed by a final England farewell for James Anderson, who will play in his 188^th and final Test match at the Home of Cricket, the same venue where he made his debut and took his first wicket, 21 years ago.

But for Stokes, this marks a clear distinction. For the first two years of Bazball, the focus was on immediate results and a change of culture, now it is a look to the future, and as always with English cricket it surrounds the next Ashes, in 18 months’ time.

“I’m not going to lie, I want us to be able to take a squad out there that I know is going to go at Australia,” Stokes said when asked about the two debutants, Gus Atkinson and Jamie Smith.

“I’ll be nearly four years as captain when we go out there, I want to be able to go out there knowing we’ve done everything possibly right over this 18-month period to go out there with a strong enough squad to not just compete with Australia but to beat them.

England will hand debuts to Surrey duo Jamie Smith and Gus Atkinson (Getty Images)

“It’s probably the first time you’ve heard me speak like that about something so far away, but again it goes back to progression as a side.

“I want this team to progress over the 18 months, so I’m focusing on that because I want us to go out to Australia and win the Ashes back.”

The visit of the West Indies almost feels like a footnote. Amid Anderson’s final Test, and talk about the next Ashes, the opposition have hardly been talked about. But it was an ill-fated tour of the West Indies in the winter of 2022 that proved the final nail in the coffin of the previous regime spearheaded by Joe Root and Chris Silverwood.

The West Indies have won a Test match in Brisbane and won a Test the last time they visited England, in the coronavirus-hit 2020. England should not underestimate them, nor do they deserve to be treated as a warm-up for a ‘bigger’ series in the future.