In defence of the draw: why Ben Stokes and England should take note

The Guardian

16-04-2025

'A tie is like kissing your sister,' Edward J Erdelatz said to the New York Times in 1954. Erdelatz was the United States Navy's head football coach and his side had just drawn 0-0 against Duke University. 'No one asked the mild spoken navy coach to explain,' the report adds. Well, quite. But sister or not, everyone knew what he meant.
Erdelatz's unique take on the merits or otherwise of not winning are ingrained in American sports where a Lombardian win-at-all-costs mentality prevails. Try explaining Test cricket to an American sports fan, they say, with a wry chuckle – the fact that two teams can battle it out for five full days and in the end, there is not necessarily a winner. Good luck, they smirk. Adelaide 1961? You may as well be describing the plot of Christopher Nolan's Memento to a toddler. Old Trafford 2005? More chance of a cider-addled bee getting to grips with quantum theory. They do not get it, be gone with your quaint English ways, five days and no winner. That's crazy, man.
And yet draws are intrinsic to Test cricket, they are written in its DNA – a double helix in the shape of a deadlock. Draws speak to its beguiling and maddening qualities, a testament to the game's downright peculiarity. That a side can battle back from a point of seemingly no return to pull off the heist of shared spoils, drop anchor, defy logic, battle against their opponents' desire, their own self-belief, against conditions under their feet and above their heads, against time itself. This makes the game what it is, why it is called what it is called. Even when you are on top, it is still really hard to finish a side off and win a Test match.
In Test cricket's nigh-on 150-year history of more than 2,500 matches, a third have ended in draws. Now, there are good draws and bad draws, or more precisely, boring draws and exciting draws. Unfortunately, the former are much more prevalent.
'In the first 2,573 Test matches, from 1877 to 2025, just 84 were won by a margin of fewer than 30 runs, or three wickets or fewer: 3%, or barely a Test every two years.' Tim Wigmore's new book Test Cricket: A History charts a narrative history of the longest format with contributions from the game's biggest characters. It is a riveting and lovingly researched tome thrumming with detail, anecdote and incisive facts such as the one above. As Wigmore says, an exciting draw in a Test match is all well and good, but it turns out those thrilling stalemates that live long in the memory are rarer than a platinum filling on a poultry farm.
Anyone who has watched an interminable draw play out will know that they come with their own particular kind of soul-sapping non-energy. Ever played in a match where a side signpost they are settling for a draw from the early stages? The worst. Long hours grazing in the field often come with a side portion of existential rumination at the best of times but spending half your weekend watching a middle-aged marketing manager block as if they have a glock to the temple with the sun barely past the yard arm is enough to make anyone ponder the futility of life, never mind put them off the game for good.
Ben Stokes clearly feels the same. He hates draws. His Test side have succumbed to one in his 32-match tenure and that was the washed out Ashes Test at Old Trafford in 2023. The England Test captain's win or bust mantra is born out of a belief that there is nothing to fear in failure and therefore no need to even entertain playing for a draw.
There is a twisted logic to this approach, it is one that has allowed Stokes's side to pull off some incredible victories from seemingly impossible positions. It has also meant they have capitulated to some of the heaviest and most embarrassing defeats in England's history. Last year's thumping losses to India in Rajkot and New Zealand in Hamilton, here's wincing at you.
'We're in the entertainment business, no more draws,' Joe Root chirped to Nathan Lyon before the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston in 2023. Lyon parroted the line back to his teammates in the Australia dressing room moments later to a mixture of mocking headshakes and shrugs. England's desire to entertain tipped too far in that Test, Stokes's day one declaration with England on 393 for eight with Root playing in princely fashion came back to bite them on day five when half an hour more of runs Root could have led to England winning the first Test or at the very least not lose it. In a five-match series these things tend to count.
A prime piece of whataboutery, perhaps, but herein lies the rub ahead of two huge series for Stokes's Test side. Are England's fans more entertained by a loss, albeit played in a rousing fashion, or would they prefer to see their side grind and guts out a draw once the opportunity to win has subsided?
England have adapted since those wild-eyed early days of Bazball, but there is room for further nuance still. England win a lot under Stokes, but they lose plenty too. Nineteen plays 12 at last count. If they find themselves with their backs against the wall against India or Australia, are they willing to knuckle down and spend two days saving a match rather than going down in a ball of flames? Which is the braver option? The most entertaining watch? Which, crucially, would the fans prefer? I think we know the answer to all of those questions.
A draw or two in the next two series could well go a long way to determining the overarching success or failure of the Bazball project. Time, then, for Stokes to rethink when it comes to the draw and embrace the grey in an increasingly black and white world. Pucker up Ben, it might not even be as bad as you think.
Scrapping for a draw when the chance of victory has reasonably vanished is one thing, but settling for one when a win is still in play is another. Dom Sibley's glacial 60 not out off 207 balls against New Zealand in the Lord's Test of 2021 remains the only Test I have walked out of in a huff. With fans starting to trickle back into the stands after the Covid lockdowns, Kane Williamson gamely declared on 169 for six to set up an exciting finish. England were set 273 runs for victory in 75 overs, the carrot was well and truly dangled. Joe Root's side never even looked like going for a nibble. The game finished in a dull draw and a few boos even rang around HQ. I could hear them from the pub.
On the flipside, as a teenager I sat on tenterhooks all day at Old Trafford watching Ricky Ponting play one of the finest innings of his career in repelling Flintoff, Hoggard, Harmison and Jones for more than seven hours. Punter was strangled for 156 but Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath somehow survived the final, pulsating 24 deliveries. Memorably, Michael Vaughan gathered his spent and frustrated team together on the outfield and pointed to the opposition balcony. 'For the first time ever we can see an Australian team celebrating the draw.'
On Tuesday night in the Lord's Long Room, at the annual MCC/Cricket Society Book of the Year event, Tanya Aldred received the Stephen Fay Award, a special award given for contributions to cricket journalism. Here's the citation from Robert Winder, chair of the judging panel: 'Stephen Fay was a distinguished author, journalist and newspaper editor, a great friend of cricket, literature and journalism. This year we wanted to honour the last of those aspects of his life and pay tribute to an outstanding member of the community that keeps cricket alive by writing about it in newspapers and magazines.
'The winner of this year's award, Tanya Aldred, is a tremendously distinguished leader of the group that keeps the flame going. On the day she received the award she was maintaining the Guardian's county blog, and a thrilling end to play at a number of grounds meant she was busy filing her roundup until just moments before the award was presented.'
Tanya's children's book with Moeen Ali, The Legend of Sparkhill, was nominated for the MCC/Cricket Society Book of the Year award in 2023. This year's MCC/Cricket Society Book of the Year went to Simon Lister for his Frank Worrell biography: Worrell: The Brief but Brilliant Life of a Caribbean Cricket Pioneer.
TMS and Sky colleagues Henry Blofeld and Geoffrey Boycott chat over tea at a soggy Trent Bridge during the July 1991 Test between England and West Indies. The tourists eased to a nine-wicket victory.
Ali Martin gets his chat on with Somerset's Tom Banton to discuss the secret behind his epic triple century.
And Gary Naylor has all your latest County Championship talking points as Warwickshire, Sussex and Nottinghamshire lead the way while fancied Surrey, Essex and Somerset remain winless.
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