Gareth Southgate is hoping a blast of ‘Bazball’ can inspire England to become kings of Europe this summer.
Southgate invited England cricket legend Ben Stokes to give a talk to his squad at their training base in Middlesbrough. Stokes has helped Brendon McCullum’s Test side become one of the best in the world, after introducing ultra aggressive tactics to games.
Stokes has also played a huge role in helping England win both the World Cup and World T20 title since 2019.
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Now Southgate is hoping the winning mentality Stokes has shown to win cricket’s biggest prizes will rub off on some of his own stars at Euro 2024 in Germany this summer.
England take on Bosnia & Herzegovina at St James’ Park tonight (Mon), in the first of two warm up games before boarding the plane to Germany.
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The Three Lions are one of the favourites to win the tournament, and Southgate believes Stokes is one of the most inspirational sportsmen England has ever had. Southgate said: “Ben Stokes came in, which I thought was a brilliant session.
“In my head, he’s one of the few English sportsmen that I felt could impact them, make them think. He’s authentic, and he talked brilliantly about getting the right balance of fearlessness, but recognising that anybody’s going to have nerves.
“It’s about still making good decisions under pressure. He was able to talk to them about some leadership aspects, the culture he’d tried to create. I think that backed up some of the things we’re doing, so we were pleased that that reaffirmed some ideas as well.
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“I just think he’s a hugely impressive guy, that’s relatable to their age. And anybody who’s performed as well as he has for England. That was a really good session that worked well for us.”
Kieran Trippier, who will captain England on his home ground tonight, was impressed with the impression Stokes made on the group.
He said: “Ben had some good stories. Obviously it is the same as we want to do. We want to attack every tournament – and attack every game similar to cricket.
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“He has some incredible stories about the setbacks he has had. We can relate that to ourselves. Attacking it is something we want to do in this tournament as well.” Part of the pressure ahead of the Three Lions this summer will be dealing with being one of the favourites to come home with the trophy.
But Southgate wants his stars to embrace the tag. He said: “Seven or eight years ago we were trying to protect the team from the pressure.
“The pressure was too much, and the level and experience of the team, they weren’t ready to cope with that. Now we know what we are, and we know we are one of the teams that can go there and win.
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“There are several but we are absolutely in that group and we have to embrace that challenge.”
Monday evening’s game – and the visit of Iceland to Wembley on Friday, will give certain players one last chance to impress Southgate. But Southgate doesn’t want his stars to get too wound up in the process.
He added: “We know who we think we would like to take. I don’t want players to feel that everything has to be perfect in this game.”