Ben Stokes says his relationship with alcohol during his cricket career was “potentially dangerous.” The former England Test captain made the admission on the For the Love of Cricket podcast alongside Jos Buttler and Stuart Broad, weeks after a nightclub curfew breach contributed to his sudden retirement from international cricket.
“I’ve also had periods in my career where my relationship with alcohol was, I wouldn’t say a problem, but it was potentially dangerous, if that makes sense. It’s completely different for me now.”
Ben Stokes, For the Love of Cricket podcast, August 4, 2026
Stokes is the most high-profile cricketer to describe his own drinking in these terms while still active in the professional game. The 35-year-old did not specify which periods he was referring to, but his career has been marked by alcohol-related incidents stretching back nearly a decade.
The admission comes two months after Stokes and fast bowler Gus Atkinson breached England’s midnight curfew following the first Test win over New Zealand at Lord’s in June. Both visited the Rex Rooms nightclub in Chelsea, where a Saracens rugby player, Totoa Auvaa, aimed a punch at Atkinson that missed and struck an ECB security staff member. The ECB cleared Atkinson of wrongdoing but suspended both players for one Test for breaching team protocols. Stokes missed the second Test at The Oval, with Joe Root stepping in as captain.
Stokes apologised to his teammates before returning for the third Test at Trent Bridge. “Of course I apologised. That was one of the first things I had to do as a captain,” he said at the time. Days later, during the fourth day of that match, he announced his retirement from international cricket mid-session while bowling. He took a wicket off his very next ball.
The nightclub breach was not the first time Stokes found himself in trouble after a night out. In September 2017, he was involved in a street fight outside a Bristol nightclub. He was arrested and charged with affray, though a jury at Bristol Crown Court found him not guilty in August 2018. The ECB fined him £30,000 and handed him a backdated eight-match ban.
What makes his “potentially dangerous” admission more striking is his recent personal history with alcohol. In January 2025, Stokes stopped drinking entirely while recovering from hamstring surgery. “I’ve not had a drink since January 2,” he said at the time. Four months later, he invested in CleanCo, a zero-alcohol spirits brand, joining as both investor and brand partner. He spoke publicly about wanting to promote alternatives to drinking in sport.
Within a year of that investment, he was suspended for breaching a curfew after a night out at a London club. That sequence, from sobriety to investment in an alcohol-free brand to a curfew breach, tells you something about how deeply cricket’s drinking culture runs through the sport.
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Cricket is structurally different from football or rugby when it comes to alcohol. A football season runs week to week. Players train, play, recover, repeat. The schedule leaves little room for extended socialising. Cricket does not work that way. Test tours last weeks, sometimes months. There are rest days between matches, rain delays that wipe out entire sessions, and long stretches in foreign countries with nothing scheduled. That downtime creates a social environment where drinking becomes the default.
Then there is the tradition. Cricket is one of the few professional sports where sharing a drink with the opposition after a match is part of the culture. The dressing room bar is not a relic of a past era. It still exists. Players from both sides sit together after a day’s play, beers in hand, talking about the game. It is considered part of the spirit of cricket. No one questions it. When you grow up playing club cricket in England, Australia, or South Africa, the bar after the game is where relationships are built, where senior players pass on advice, where you feel like you belong. That culture follows you from club cricket to county cricket to international cricket. It does not disappear because the ECB sends an email about curfews.
Does English cricket have a drinking problem?
Stokes rejected the idea that England specifically has a drinking problem, calling the suggestion “extreme.” He framed the issue as a sport-wide problem that starts at club level and works its way up through every tier of the professional game.
“Cricket has just a drinking culture and it hasn’t changed. We’re in 2026 now, and the game has become much more professional over the years. But one thing that I think has stayed the same is cricket’s relationship with alcohol.”
Ben Stokes, For the Love of Cricket podcast, August 4, 2026
The distinction matters. Stokes was not defending England’s recent record. The last year of his captaincy saw multiple incidents. During the 2025-26 Ashes in Australia, England lost 4-1 and their mid-series break in Noosa became a public embarrassment. Ben Duckett was filmed visibly drunk, unable to find his way back to the team hotel. The ECB launched an investigation. Reports described the trip as resembling a “stag do.”
After the Ashes, England tightened their code of conduct. Players were advised not to drink on the day before, during, or the day after a match. A midnight curfew was enforced throughout every series, not just on match days. Players leaving the hotel after 10 PM were required to inform team management or security.
Broad, on the same podcast, pushed back against the curfew approach. He argued that imposing rules on grown professionals is counterproductive and that the real solution lies in team culture, where teammates hold each other accountable. Buttler took a more measured position, saying players need to be self-aware and live a professional life.
The ECB’s new rules address the symptoms. Stokes, whether he intended to or not, described the cause. Cricket’s relationship with alcohol has not changed because the conditions that sustain it, the touring, the downtime, the tradition, have not changed either. Rules can set boundaries. They cannot dismantle a culture that has been embedded in the sport since before any current player was born.
Sources:
For the Love of Cricket podcast, August 4, 2026 Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Stuart Broad
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