Sydenham president Graham Harris said Stokes said he was keen to get some training under his belt before departing. He has history with the club, having trained with them in 2019 and 2020 during previous visits.
Stokes’ brother James plays in one of Sydenham’s social T20 teams, and mum Deborah is also a former player.
"(Stokes) is a very dedicated cricketer and a very humble guy, and the guys love training with him,” Harris said.
“He's very helpful, very constructive both with batting and bowling. If he felt he could add value he would with the players, so I think they had a very, very, very good experience.”
Stokes had three training sessions with Sydenham premiership and championship players on Friday, Sunday and Monday.
Sydenham captain Mitchell Gardner, who played against Stokes during a season in the UK in 2016, was at the Sunday session at the Hagley Oval nets. Gardner said it was a challenge to go up against Stokes. But his troops held their own against one of the world's best all-rounders.
“On the Sunday he was cranking it up with his bowling full tilt, and a few of the boys said it was coming down pretty quick. The batters liked the idea of it until they kind of got in the nets but they all enjoyed it.”
“I was lucky enough to catch an outside edge or two, but there would have been 100 runs in between those, and he was probably running off about three hours sleep,” he said.
"Especially on that Sunday when he was really charging in, you can hit the ball, but he bowled a bumper at me, and I sort of got halfway into hooking it and it was already flying into the back of the net.”
Despite the English captain’s help, McArdle was backing Australia to be too strong in the upcoming Ashes.
“Aussie are always tough to beat at home, if I had to make a prediction, I'd say 3-1 Aussie.”
