In a week when the England football team was eliminated from the World Cup and their captain, Harry Kane, stood up to be counted, another hero was winning half a world away.

And his story teaches us important lessons about mental health in post Covid era, writes columnist Rhys Griffiths.

Ben Stokes is a remarkable cricketer. But more importantly he appears to be a remarkable human being. For a long time I imagined the discovery of new sporting heroes was something I had left behind in my younger days. The idea that you could once again fall in love with a sportsman or woman in the way you could as a boy seemed almost ridiculous. Surely when I became a man, I put away such childish things?

Yet there is something about Stokes that seems to me so perfect for our age, something that once I learnt more of his story I was powerless to resist. Here is a man of great talent but also of great troubles, a man who has faced much and yet risen further and further above it. Not only taking himself to the pinnacle of sporting performance, but almost single-handedly - through sheer force of character - redrawing the very boundaries of his sport and how it should be played.

Cricket is quite possibly the most English of pastimes but, sad as it may be, it no longer holds the central place in our national life that it once did. The county game is increasingly squeezed by the demands of franchise cricket. Attendances dwindle, the crowds at famous old grounds like St Lawrence in Canterbury grow a little greyer by the year. And the suits at the ECB thrash about looking for the latest gimmick to draw in the youngsters they fear will simply never fall in love with the game.

But for those of us who believe test cricket to be the true pinnacle of the sport, what joy there has been to witness Stokes, England's captain, and his coach, the Kiwi, Brendon McCullum, set free a team that just a just year previous appeared terrified, timid, unable to express themselves, and turn them into a group that looks failure in the face and embraces both the risk and reward that entails.

The character of this team, to an outside observer at least, appears shaped most vitally by the character of Stokes himself. Watching the recent Amazon film about the cricketer’s life, in which he opened up with great bravery about his struggles with his mental health and the death of his father, you came face to face with a man whose story and whose character should set an example for everyone, young and old, sporting or non-sporting, anyone who has known adversity and wishes to learn how to overcome it.

'In Stokes we have another young man with three lions on his shirt whose story could and should help inspire a new generation to face the many great challenges of our time...'

So many of us have suffered deteriorating mental health in recent years, as the world endured the trauma, the disruption, the uncertainty associated with living through a global pandemic. For some of us, however strong we may have believed ourselves to be, there were times when we felt broken, unable to face the world, to simply carry on. Stokes has bravely admitted his struggles, taking time away from the game he loves to focus on getting his mind back in the right place. Back to a place where he can give all of himself once more.

His story, although far from unique, teaches us an important lesson. Stokes seeks to understand his frailties, and is learning to be unafraid to articulate them. Opening up about your very deepest, most personal troubles for a worldwide audience does not come easy. And for many of us even talking to friends and family can seem impossible during the darkest times. Perhaps, having had these experiences, the responsibility of a position like test captain feels just that little bit lighter. And he is now free enough in himself to accept that defeat and failure will come - but it is in the trying that true character is formed.

In a world that so often seems to be on the verge of collapse, when we stare down so many complex crises at one time, when it can feel almost impossible to meet the challenges of the age, what better role model for all of us than Stokes, and the team he and McCullum have formed. A team that in redefining the sport has shown us the freedom that comes with being honest about ourselves and our emotions, our strengths and our weaknesses, and still striving all the same.

In a week when the England football team was eliminated from the World Cup and another captain, Harry Kane, stood up to be counted, Stokes and his England cricket team clinched a decisive series lead against their hosts, Pakistan. They did so with an air of ease that appeared to come less from raw sporting dominance of their opponents, but rather from an acceptance that some things can only be achieved once you are truly prepared to fail.

Cricket may have faded from the national conversation in recent years and it is a great shame because in Stokes we have another young man with three lions on his shirt whose story could and should help inspire a new generation to face the many great challenges of our time. And face them with humanity, with vulnerability, and the knowledge that even in the most difficult of moments it truly is the trying that counts.

What do you think? Comment below or email opinion@thekmgroup.co.uk We're always looking for diverse views on the biggest issues. Get in touch if you'd like to contribute