Ben Stokes Leads Tribute With Key Worker Names Featuring On His Team’s Shirts 

Key worker heroes from across the cricket family were today honoured by having their names displayed on the training shirts of the England Men’s Test team ahead of the start of the first #raisethebat Test against the West Indies.

The three-Test series, taking place behind closed doors, is honouring and celebrating the heroes who have been going above and beyond to help others during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today, the England Men’s players and coaches took to the pitch at the The Ageas Bowl, Southampton, wearing the names of key workers on their training shirts before the start of the match. The people named on the shirts were all nominated by their local cricket clubs and include teachers, doctors, nurses, carers and other vital professions.

Each key worker will now receive the shirt bearing their name, signed by the player who wore it, to thank them for the work they’ve been doing. Their names and photos will also be highlighted in broadcast partners’ Sky and BBC’s coverage and displayed across the ground on the big screens and LED banners.

Ben Stokes, who is captaining England in the first Test while Joe Root is away for the birth of his second child, took to the pitch wearing the name of Durham-local Vikas Kumar, a specialist in anaesthetics and critical care at Darlington Memorial Hospital.

Through the pandemic Dr Kumar, a keen cricketer who plays at Cowgate Cricket Club in Newcastle and the Gilli Boys Amateur Club in Darlington, has been working on the frontline while also being there for his family at home.

The other key workers being celebrated today include:

• Dr Samara Fazal, a GP at Limes Medical Centre in Birmingham, who shared the moment with Chris Woakes, also a West-Midlands local. Samara is a chief medical adviser to the National Asian Cricket Council and last year supported a successful pilot which used cricket as a way to get her female patients from the South Asian community more
• Sussex-based paramedic Joe Wheatley is one of those honoured, with Sussex player Jofra Archer wearing the Barcombe Cricket Club member’s name on his training Joe offers fantastic support to those he treats and their families, often being a patient’s first contact with medical staff during an emergency. When he’s not driving an ambulance, he’s manning the heavy roller as Barcombe’s groundsman and has kept the pitches maintained throughout the postponement of recreational cricket.
• Chris Tall is a pillar of his local cricket club, Newark Ransome & Marles Cricket Club, where he volunteers as groundsman, coach and on the committee. He had to step away from his club as the pandemic developed, however, to focus his attentions on caring for the residents in the care home at which he works. His efforts and sacrifices at such a crucial time led to his teammates nominating him. This morning he featured on the shirt of Stuart Broad who plays for Chris’s home county of Nottinghamshire
• Pace bowler Mark Wood will recognise local hero Susan Bainbridge on his training shirt. Susan is a volunteer at the North East Ambulance Service but in her spare time runs Zumba classes for older people throughout Teesdale. During the pandemic, the Middleton-in-Teesdale cricketer has taken her exercise classes online through Zoom to ensure the community can keep active.

A full list of key workers, their professions and player/coach matchings can be found here:

Ben Foakes – Emily Blakemore, Nurse

Olly Robinson – Dr Nasir Ali, Emergency Medicine Consultant at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Jofra Archer – Joe Wheatley, Paramedic

Jack Leach – Ollie Clarke, NHS volunteer

Olly Stone – Holly Buxton, Organiser of the COVID-19 Community Workforce for the elderly Dominic Bess – Wendy Morris, Nurse

Mark Wood – Susan Bainbridge, NEAS Ambulance Volunteer Stuart Broad – Chris Tall, Care Home Worker

James Anderson – Tom Field, Nurse Practitioner Dan Lawrence – Richard Freeman, Police Officer Joe Denly – Anna Tunnicliff, A&E Sister

Zak Crawley – Debi Armstrong, Specialist Nurse

Craig Overton – Dale Hardy, Head Teacher at Sir Robert Pattinson Academy James Bracey – Harikrishna Shah, Clinic Coordinator

Chris Woakes – Dr Samara Afzal – Doctor

Ben Stokes – Dr Vikas Kumar, Specialist in Anaesthetics and Critical Care Saqib Mahmood – Kishan Aghada, Physiotherapist

Sam Curran – Victor Hinds, Hospital Distribution Officer

Ollie Pope – Yahya Hafejee, Support Leader at Department for Work and Pensions Rory Burns – Sharmyn Kennedy, Teacher

Jos Buttler – Dr Jamasp Kaikhusroo Dastur, Surgeon

Dom Sibley – Mohammed Banaris, Safety Officer at Edgbaston who ran the COVID-19 testing centre

Chris Silverwood – Matthew Rammell, Respiratory Physiotherapist Graham Thorpe – Dr Chris Boyson, Doctor

Phil Scott – Chantel Jacklin, Healthcare Assistant