Stokes returned to the ODI format against New Zealand this month after a year in ‘retirement’ and has been named in England’s preliminary squad for the World Cup. He validated his return with a knock of 182 against the Black Caps this week, the highest-ever for an England men’s batter in the format – but Paine, who had initially called Stokes out for picking and choosing when he wanted to play, remains unimpressed.

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“It was a bit of, ‘Me, me, me’, there isn’t it? It was, ‘I’ll pick and I’ll choose where I want to play and when I want to play’, and, ‘I’ll play in the big tournaments,” Paine had remarked after Stokes’ decision to withdraw his ODI retirement. “[To] the guys who played for 12 months, ‘Sorry, thanks. But can you go and sit on the bench because I want to play now?’”

Paine, who admitted to getting a lot of Tweets after Stokes’ heroics against New Zealand, responded to them on SEN Cricket: “He said it himself, he wants to be known as someone who wins World Cups. No issues with that. Just don’t retire in the first place.”

On being asked if Stokes was being selfish, Paine said, “He is. I don’t like when people do that [retire and then make a comeback].”

Stokes had quashed rumours of a possible return to ODIs during the Ashes this year but revealed that a return was always on the cards after his match-winning 182. “I knew that I’d be playing in these games and potentially in the World Cup then when I said that, but it was just the easiest thing to say [to deny a return] that and put you [the media] off the radar,” said Stokes in the post-match press conference at The Oval.

Paine said that while Stokes remains a gun player, no athlete should retire if they have a change of heart. “He retired and then backed it up again in an interview, saying ‘there is no chance [of a comeback]” in June’.”

Paine resigned as Australia Test captain in November 2021 after it emerged that he had sent sexually explicit text messages to a female colleague in 2017.