English cricketer Ben Stokes arrives at Auckland International Airport. Photo / Getty Images
English cricketer Ben Stokes arrives at Auckland International Airport. Photo / Getty Images
There could not have been a more low-key way for Ben Stokes to rejoin the England team on Friday after a tumultuous winter that has seen them thrashed in the Ashes without him.
It was just after 6pm here on a sun-lit evening in sleepy Hamilton when Stokes strode through the front door of the England team hotel to resume a career that was so rudely interrupted by his late night fracas in Bristol last September.
A welcoming party of team manager Phil Neale, stand-in media manager Henry Cowen and security guard Sam Dickason had met Stokes at Auckland Airport and accompanied him the 70 miles to this cricketing outpost.
Only 10 or so camera crews and journalists were at the airport with Stokes, who had travelled hot foot from Bristol Magistrates Court via Heathrow, Abu Dhabi and Melbourne, just uttering 'yes' when asked if he was happy to be back with his team, while he was able to stride into the England base here unnoticed.
Just Liam Plunkett, who has been ruled out of the rest of England's white-ball tour with a hamstring injury, David Willey and his five-month-old son and physio Craig de Weymarn were in the lobby to greet him while five English journalists had been told England's wayward hero would not be talking. And he didn't.
An elderly couple, meanwhile, enjoyed their sundowners in the hotel bar oblivious to the big, controversial figure who had just strode in anonymously to an unremarkable hotel in an unusually bland part of this wonderful country.
The only real reception came in the form of a team gathering to watch New Zealand's Twenty20 encounter against Australia at Eden Park. And what entertainment it was, Australia overtaking New Zealand's mammoth 243 for six with seven balls in hand that just about keeps England's tri-series hopes alive.
Sunday's final qualifying game here now becomes a winner takes all affair, with England needing to win and win well against New Zealand to advance to Wednesday's final against Australia back in Auckland.
It may be questionable that Stokes has been hurried back with unseemly haste just days after his first court appearance on a charge of affray and having negotiated his way out of a second hearing at the crown court on March 12.
Yet there is no question that the England team are delighted to see him and certainly do not blame their talisman in any way for the crushing Ashes defeat nor the extra scrutiny in Australia on their off-field activities.
"He's a great cricketer for England so the sooner he's back the better," said Willey, summing up the mood in the England camp. "It's great that he's coming back among the lads and we're all delighted to have him back."
This is a particularly close-knit England limited-overs side so Willey's words were genuine but it might be worth keeping an eye on Stokes relationship now with Alex Hales, who was with him on that fateful night at the Mbargo Bar.
For now there was another England player causing much more of a stir here than the arrival of Stokes in the form of Adil Rashid, who had dropped the bombshell that he was turning his back on red-ball cricket.
This could be a significant moment for a game still trying to protect the primacy of Test cricket in an ever changing world that will probably now see more and more players, like Rashid, concentrate on white-ball cricket.
England cricketer Ben Stokes arrives at Bristol Magistrates' Court in Bristol, England on Feb 13. Photo / AP Photo
Willey, another candidate from Yorkshire to make the same move, spoke well and intelligently about the situation facing three-format players, highlighting the impossibility of challenging for a Test place in a white-ball world.
"It's just the way the game seems to be going and these Twenty20 competitions are appealing to people not only for the cricket but also financially," said Willey after England had been frustrated in their efforts to train properly at Seddon Park because of wet nets. "We have a short time playing sport and there comes a time when you have to make decisions for yourself and your family.
"It's probably nearly impossible to play Tests when you're playing so much white-ball cricket. It's a little bit different this summer because we're available for a few more games but in the last couple of years it's been pretty much impossible to string a lot of red ball games together.
"So then it becomes 'what's your ambition in four-day cricket?' If you're only playing two or three games a year you're probably not making much of a contribution to a championship title challenge and you're certainly not going to be able to push for Test cricket so if you are in that position you're probably thinking 'what am I playing it for?'"
Willey emphasised that he moved to Headingley to try to improve his prospects of playing Test cricket and he is not going to give up just yet but clearly others are going to tred the same path as Rashid. And soon.
You would hope that just concentrating on white-ball cricket will be the last thing on Ben Stokes mind as he trained with England on Saturday for the first time this winter.
He has lost time to make up and a mainly woeful winter to rescue. The only question is whether he should be here or back at home attempting to clear his name.
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