England all-rounder Ben Stokes was the first sportsperson to be announced as a nominee for this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award.

Player of the Match in the Cricket World Cup Final and the star of England’s extraordinary one wicket in the Headingley Ashes Test, Stokes is the third cricketer to be nominated for the award in as many years following Anya Shrubsole and Sir Alastair Cook’s nominations in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

According to several bookmakers, Stokes is the overwhelming favourite to take home the award on Sunday, December 15. Should he win, he would become just the fifth cricketer be crowned the BBC Sports Personality of the Year since the award was introduced in 1954. Cricket’s previous victors have been Jim Laker in 1956, David Steele in 1975, Sir Ian Botham in 1981 and Andrew Flintoff in 2005.

Stokes’ nomination was announced in a social media video featuring Ed Sheeran in which he expressed his support for his fellow redhead. Sheeran started his message by saying: “Hey Ben Stokes, you are a Sports Personality of the Year nominee, congratulations. I think you should win because you’re a World Cup winner.”

If Stokes were to be voted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year it would complete a remarkable career turnaround. In 2017, Stokes was infamously charged and later acquitted for affray after an incident outside a Bristol nightclub. The incident meant that Stokes missed that winter’s Ashes series. In September 2018, Stokes pleaded guilty to the ECB of bringing the game into disrepute.

[breakout id=”0″][/breakout]

Stokes’ return to the England set up in early 2018 did not bring instant success. In 10 Tests, he failed to pass 70, experiencing his worst full year in Test cricket. In 2019 though, Stokes has been a revelation. As well as his World Cup and Ashes heroics, he has a Test batting average of 49.73 this year.

Related tags:

Ben Stokes