Special gift from his childhood awaits Ben Stokes in second Test in Wellington against New Zealand

England Captain Ben Stokes will be returning to Wellington, a city where he spent his last two years as a New Zealander. Stokes will be in the city to play the second Test against New Zealand starting on February 24, which will also be the first time that he will be playing a Test in the New Zealand Capital. 

During the Test, the Christchurch-born cricketer will be getting a special gift which is a 19-year-old certificate congratulating him for being selected for the Wellington junior representative team. However, his family had moved to England before he could receive it.

Andy Cameron, Stokes’ good friend from his playing days in New Zealand has safely kept the certificate with him which has survived a flood in the garage and a house shifting. Cameron shared his initial thoughts when he first saw Stokes at the indoor nets at the historic Basin Reserve ground.

"Ben always stood out, not because he was bigger than anyone else, but because he was a powerful boy," Cameron was quoted as saying by BBC Sport.

"When he threw the ball at you, you felt it in the gloves. He had great natural ability and great skills at other sports. He was adept at picking the ball up with either hand,” he said.

"If you threw him the ball and said, 'Hey Ben, bowl a leg-break', he'd know exactly what to do, whereas most others boys wouldn't know what you were talking about. He just knew instinctively what to do,” he further added.

At the age of 10, Stokes attended Plimmerton Primary School, where he got introduced to his teacher and cricket coach Mike Smellie. Smellie revealed that Plimmerton used to participate in the Milo Cup, a national knockout tournament. Being a small school, they didn't often go too far in the tournament. However, since Stokes joined the team, they went on a cup run.

"We kept winning. We won and won and won, and Ben was consistently making big scores. We were calling ourselves the juggernaut. We got through to play Palmerston North, a much bigger school in a massive cricket area. We were on a hiding to nothing, 100-1 and drifting,” said Smellie.

However, Plimmerton’s hopes were hanging in balance as Stokes was out of the game with a broken arm.

The next day he walked up the school with no cast on his arm: Mike Smellie

"I was asking if he could play and he said he had another three weeks in plaster. I rang his mum, pretending to talk about something else. We got on to cricket and she said no. The day before the game, I was talking to him and said he might as well come to watch,” he continued.

"The next day, he walked up the school driveway, pulling his cricket bag with no cast on his arm. I said 'what's going on?' He said 'Dad got out the scissors and cut it off this morning',” Smellie further said.

Stokes got a hundred, though in a losing cause to the eventual national champions. The incident speaks volumes of the grit that the maverick cricketer possesses which has helped him to perform at big stages in his career.

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