Star England all-rounder Ben Stokes is all set to make his Indian Premier League debut for Chennai Super Kings in the imminent 16th season of the tournament.
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Stokes, 31, was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. He helped England to beat New Zealand in the final of ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. Interestingly, he was nominated for New Zealander of the year for the same.
Stokes’ father’s name is Gerard Stokes, who was a rugby league player and coach. When Stokes was 13-year old, he moved to England as his father got a job with the Workington Town Rugby Club in England. In his early days, Stokes played for the Cockermouth Cricket Club.
After a few years, his parents moved to New Zealand again, but Stokes stayed in England. Gerard died in 2020 in New Zealand due to brain cancer. Debbie Stokes is Ben’s mother, and she had two children before marrying Gerrard Stokes. ‘
Ben Stokes Wife Name
Stokes married his partner Clare Ratcliffe in 2017, who used to work as a primary school teacher. Both of them met in 2010 during a match between Lancashire and Durham at Old Trafford, Manchester. Ratcliffe sent a Facebook friend request to Stokes, and the rest is history. They got engaged in 2013.
Both of them had a long-distance relationship in the earlier phase as Stokes used to live in Durham and Ratcliffe in Taunton. High-profile English cricketers namely Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler, Stuart Broad etc. had attended the wedding ceremony of Stokes and Ratcliffe.
They also have two children named Layton (son) and Libby (daughter). Readers must note that Stokes had become a father even before his marriage at an age of 22. However, he says that becoming a father at that age made him more mature in life.
“It has changed me being a dad because when you have a baby and you’re only 22, that brings a lot of responsibility with it,” Stokes once said as quoted by The Mirror.
Ben Stokes is Chennai Super Kings’ costliest player
Stokes was bought by Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2023 auction for a whopping price of INR 16.25 crores. He is the most expensive player bought by CSK in the history of the tournament. Chennai had spent INR 14 crore on pacer Deepak Chahar last year, but he missed the whole tournament due to an injury.
Super Kings will have high hopes from Stokes in IPL 2023. However, due to a knee injury, he won’t be able to bowl in the initial matches of the tournament.
