English all-rounder Ben Stokes has grabbed a lot of attention in recent times. He has been one of the most talked about cricketers around the world since ICC World T20 2016.

Stokes has been one of the most emerging all-rounders in world cricket. He has been proving his worth in all the formats of the game in any given conditions. He are some intriguing facts about Stokes that very few people aware of:

Ben Stokes’ in his childhood

Ben Stokes was born and brought-up till the age of 12 in Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand. In 2003, Ben’s father Gerard Stokes moved to northern England. He was a sportsman right from his childhood days.

According to a report in Daily Mail, Ben was not just a stylish cricket, but also a rugby during his school days. Stokes said, “Ever since I was young I have played all sorts of sport, mainly cricket and rugby league. My mom was into her sport, too, and she was more of a cricketer than my dad but he won’t like to hear that.”

In his teenage, Ben Stokes had to choose between cricket and rugby, but, he made a strong call and chose cricket because he was enjoying it more than rugby. He said, “I remember playing a rugby league game at full back and I wasn’t too bothered about people getting past me and scoring so I knew my heart wasn’t in that game anymore.”

Secret admirer

Stokes was full of talent but his father wasn’t rich enough to fund his coaching and other stuff. But then there was someone who secretly got to know about the potential of Stokes and offered to pay for his coaching. According to a report in Telegraph, John Gibson, who coaches youngsters at Cockermouth Cricket Club in Cumbria said that the identity is the secret sponsor is only known to Ben Stokes and his wife Clare Ratcliffe.

Ben got married very early with a girl named Clare Ratcliffe. Stokes now has two kids as well. He wears a sporting garment which holds a GPS tracker in the back, but it looks like a sports bra. Stokes also tweeted about it:

There are very few cricketers in the world who don’t have nicknames and after punching the locker and breaking his finger, Stokes’ England teammates started calling Rocky. In order to add more spice to the name and add more fun to that incident, he was also named as The Hurt Locker.

Secret nick-name of Ben Stokes

In the third Twenty20 International (T20I) against West Indies at Kensington on March 13, 2014, Stokes got out for a golden duck. He was so annoyed with himself that he punched a locked and broke his finger. Consequently, he fractured his finger thus his exclusion from ICC World T20 2014. Explaining the act Stokes said, “I’m very passionate about what I do and get quite emotional when things don’t go well but on that occasion, it came out in a way that I regret.”

Ben Stokes has a soft corner for tattoos and he has a whole lot of them on his body. His left arm tattoo reads, “Being the best that you can be is only possible if you desire to be a champion and your fear of failure is non-existent.“

Stokes’ favorite batsman and bowler are Kevin Pietersen and Dale Steyn.