In My Sporting Hero, a new podcast series from Nutmeg, footballers talk about the athletes who inspire them. Sometimes those sportsmen and women are also footballers. Sometimes not. You can listen to the audio on this post, on the podcast app of your choice (just search for ‘My Sporting Hero’) or enjoy the written version below.
Our next guest is Joe Newell.
Joe won the 2014 English Football League trophy at Peterborough and the 2018 League One play-off final with Rotherham. He signed for Hibernian in 2019, and has since established himself as a fans’ favourite. He has played 188 times for Hibs, evolving from a wide-left role to become a stalwart central midfielder. He was named club captain in the summer after signing a contract extension at Easter Road.
Brummie Joe’s sporting hero is Ben Stokes, England’s magnificent Test cricket captain.
Ben Stokes has had so many iconic and memorable moments for England. I’m a cricket fan – not a huge fan, but I’ll watch England play. I don’t watch the club or county game, but I’ve got great memories of Ben playing in the Ashes and the World Cup and Twenty20s; just so many amazing moments. Ben has obviously been England’s best player for the last few years. What I like about cricket is that it’s a team game, but it’s defined a lot by individuals.
The third Test of the 2019 Ashes sticks out. It was at Headingley, and we ended up drawing the series having been down and out. The Ashes was well and truly alive due to one man, Benjamin Stokes. He just tore Australia apart and it was amazing.
I really like his general character as well, he seems like a good guy. He’s been through some tough experiences off the pitch: he’s come out publicly and talked about his mental health and he had an incident on a night out in Bristol when he got in trouble with the law. So he’s had his problems but I think he comes across as a really good human being.
When the chips are down, and you see him come out to bat or you need a wicket, you give him the ball. I’m sure he’s the kind of guy who the other boys look to and think, “It’s alright, Ben’s coming in next.” He’s got an aura about him, that style you associate with the likes of Jude Bellingham. Some people just have that stardust, that star quality.
During the summer, it’s nice to watch a Test series and I love my golf as well; I could easily have picked Justin Rose as My Sporting Hero. It’s just something away from football that I like to focus on and like to watch and play. I can’t think of anyone in the changing room who likes cricket. It’s just not a common sport up here; apart from Edinburgh and the Borders where rugby is popular, it’s just football and nothing else. When I first joined Hibs, it was the summer when England had beaten New Zealand in the World Cup final, and I came in the next day and asked my team-mates, “Did you watch the cricket?” and everyone was like, no – not interested!
I actually met Ben Stokes. A few of us were on holiday in Dubai. We were in a beach club after playing golf. And in walks Ben Stokes, Liam Livingstone and (ex-player and England coach) Paul Collingwood, and they were celebrating a victory. I thought, there’s no way I’m asking for a photo, but after a few drinks I went over and got a picture with him! It was just a short conversation and he had no idea who we were, but he was a really nice, good guy.
He’s actually a lot bigger than I expected, which I suppose makes sense considering he plays with a lot of power. He could be out batting for hours, and then he’s bowling and of course he’s the captain who has to be constantly switched-on and organising his field, which is a lot of work. In terms of his technical ability and physicality, he’s obviously elite. World-class in his field.
They have microphones at the wickets now, and I think they should get rid of them. They used to have more ‘sledging’ (verbal intimidation), and you can imagine what was said 20 or 30 years ago. If you were a batter, you’d have felt very lonely. For example, if you had Shane Warne and four or five guys all within eight or ten yards of you, hammering you, it must have been very hard to have kept your concentration.
I’ve never played cricket apart from as a kid. I’d love to get back involved somehow, even just to go and practice down at the nets or something. Josh Doig actually liked cricket, and we talked about going down to the nets just to have a mess around, but we never got around to it. If you don’t grow up liking cricket, it’s something very hard to get into because you won’t understand the game and you will probably find it boring.
My wife went to an England game with her dad when she was a kid, but I’ve never been to one. It’s hard to attend cricket matches because of pre-season commitments, but when I retire we’d like to go abroad and follow a tour, to the West Indies or South Africa or somewhere. That would be amazing, just sipping a drink for hours as you watch cricket. I’d like to watch as many different sports as possible, including rugby. It would be great to follow the British Lions.
Share this post