Trisha Ghosal
One of the best parts of this job is that you get to know players as people, not just the cricketers everyone else sees. On the field, Ben Stokes looked like a machine in the England-India series, bowling long spells, pushing through a shoulder injury, always sniffing out victory. But once the stumps were drawn, he was someone completely different.
After the fifth Test at The Oval, I asked him for a picture. He looked at my accreditation, raised an eyebrow and said, “Indian media? So… writing bad things about me or good things?” I told him, “Kinda both.” He smirked, shot back, “Then no pic for you,” and walked past me. For a second, I thought he was serious. Then he turned around, burst out laughing and said, “Kidding, come on.”
He had pulled the same trick on my colleague Rohan Chowdhury at Old Trafford. That’s Stokes for you, a beast on the field, but off it, he’s a prankster who enjoys a joke as much as anyone else.
Moments like these are why covering sport goes beyond runs and wickets. You remember the conversations, the laughter, the little glimpses of who players are when the cameras are off. And often, those stay with you far longer than any scorecard.
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