The England red-ball captain Ben Stokes is expected to sign a new deal with the Mumbai Indians Cape Town (MICT) after being offered a huge amount of £800,000 to be part of the upcoming edition of South Africa’s franchise T20 league next January.
SA T20, which was launched in 2023, is run by all six Indian Premier League (IPL) sides, as the MICT is the partner team of the Mumbai Indians, owned by the Ambani family. If they successfully include Ben Stokes for the next season, then the balance and strength of the side will be quite high.
Along with him, his national teammate Joe Root is also going to sign for the Paarl Royals in SA20, where his side is monitored by the Rajasthan Royals, a team which Root has already been a member of in the IPL 2023. This makes it quite interesting to see Ben not turning for Johannesburg Super Kings (JSK), despite being part of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in IPL 2023.
Ben Stokes looks to negotiate England’s new central contract
Ben Stokes isn’t someone who is known for his performance in the shortest format of the game, having collected 585 runs in 36 T20Is at a strike rate of 128, with a best score of unbeaten 52 runs, which came during the final of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 against Pakistan.
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The recent return to full fitness by the all-rounder makes him such a skillful member of the side, while the offer by the Mumbai Indians side also powers him coming to a negotiating position with the England Cricket Board’s new central contract.
Last year, when the ECB provided their captain of the longest format a multi-year deal, he rejected it to sign only a one-year contract for the national side. The managing director of the country, Rob Key explained that this would keep him in a good position to go for more lucrative deals this year.
Ben Stokes has been part of 45 IPL appearances since 2017, where he has blasted 935 runs at a strike rate of around 135, with a couple of centuries and two fifties, besides picking up 28 wickets at an economy of under nine, which always increases his value as a player in this format.
He also has very fond memories with Cape Town, having smashed an extraordinary 258-run knock for England at the Newlands in 2016, before bowling England to a close victory with a superb spell four years later.
At this stage, if everything sits well, Ben Stokes will be playing under Keiron Pollard’s captaincy and will go on to miss the upcoming five-match T20I series in India during that period. This won’t be an issue for the veteran, having already taken retirement from the shortest format of the game.
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However, Stokes could still feature in the upcoming Champions Trophy, which begins on February 19 and is scheduled to take place in Pakistan for the moment. Before the tournament, the left-handed batter will also have the opportunity to be part of the three-match ODI series in India, as a preparation, which will start on February 06.
England is playing only six Tests in this home summer, before flying to New Zealand and Pakistan before Christmas to be part of six more Test matches, as it won’t affect Ben Stokes’ routine to keep himself away from the SA20. It will interesting to see what decision gets transpired on the development of the deal.
