Mike Brearley is possibly England’s greatest ever captain (he’s certainly in the discussion). He averaqed 22.9 with the bat. QED?
There’s a couple of things here though. The game has moved on to the extent that basically no one can be on the field unless he’s contributing something with bat and ball. Brearley probably wouldn’t be given house room now, despite his probable ability to get the best out of the other 10 blokes on the field. So, it’s unlikely that the “best captain” is going to get picked.
The major issues with captaincy for England, I think, are - as ever - structural. The central contracts mean that the players don’t play a lot of county cricket. As a result, it’s pretty foolish for the counties to have an England player as their captain. Consequently, the players in the England team don’t get experience actually captaining sides, with the conclusion that they wind up learning on the job at Test level a lot. For England, only Strauss and Vaughan got anywhere near to hitting the ground running during the centrally contracted era. So I don’t think it’s Root’s fault per se. He’s in a difficult position but everyone else would be too.
The obvious thing to do would be to have England players play more County Championship - alongside actually having the CC played at a time of year that might help us develop bowlers that can do things abroad - thus affording them more opportunity to do some captaincy. We’ll wind up with them getting more injuries though, as their workload increases, plus it will require more emphasis on red ball cricket, which is currently not en vogue for the ECB. So pretty unlikely, to be honest.
We’re groping towards the future in England - the current thinking being that white ball cricket is the thing that will make the money in the long run, so set the structure up to maximise chances in that - indeed, I reckon the ODI series coming up could be quite competitive. It might even be correct to focus on white ball stuff - though, for me, that’s simply helping the driving of red ball into oblivion. I’m not hugely keen on root and branch restructure at the minute - England have been pretty competitive in red ball since the introduction of central contracts and the shift to two divisions in the CC - but there’s potentially some room for tinkering with the structure to help our shortcomings in red ball cricket. We have to want that though and I am not sure senior management in the ECB do.
Good points well made, both. Having first been exposed to the performance of the England cricket team in the early 90s, this century has largely been full of good performances, certainly in comparison with the 90s but also England have clearly risen in stature in all forms of the game. I agree that England vs Australia at home, with these two teams, would have left England as slight favourites. As such I hope this series is just a blip caused by our best players being out of form and there being no depth to challenge or replace them. What England need to focus on now is that this series (whether it finishes 2-3 or 0-5) is indeed a blip, not the start of a prolonged decline. Unfortunately, everything points towards the latter due to the lack of players coming through. But even then, if they start now they can possibly build a squad to challenge the Aussies next time we tour there. I don’t think that’s an over-reaction, it’s true England have not been awful, but it is the reality for me.
Cumbrian, if you were Trevor Bayliss would you sit down with Cook and Root tonight and float the idea of Cook taking over the captaincy for the next 2 tests? If they both agreed, could the PR managed to avoid a savaging in the media? I think it could, and would be worth a shot. It surely can’t harm the onfield performance of either of them, or the team. I can’t see the other players refusing to play for Cook for any reason. But I know very little about the psychology of cricket captaincy, having never even played the game much less captained a team.
I don’t know that either of these two teams is particularly great although there are very good elements of both sides. Australia’s bowling attack is very effective in home conditions, maybe the best in the world at the moment. And Steve Smith just appears to be a genius. In fact I cannot think of any sportsman or woman who has improved so much after becoming an established player. The idea that the guy who, in his first 3 years and 11 tests scored 5 50s and averaged 29.52, would then score 21 hundreds and 16 50s at 71.89 in 47 tests in 4 more years, wouldn’t have seemed feasible.
But as for the team in general in the recent past we have drawn with Bangladesh, lost to India, lost to Sri Lanka, lost at home to South Africa, narrowly beat New Zealand at home and flogged the always floggable Pakistan. In fact on the ICC cricket rankings Australia was behind England although they will overtake them now.
And while the Marsh brothers have managed to perform this series they were still selected. A repeated failure who was being recalled for the eighth time and the batsman with the historically lowest average in history for a number 6 batsman. So it’s not as though there was a queue of hotshot young batsmen in the wings.
Had England not beaten South Africa early in the year I would be convinced this just a clash of two sides simultaneously going through a slump.
I suspect, once you’re in, you’re in and once you’re out, that’s your lot. I can’t think of many captains, if any, that have had two bites of the cherry that weren’t enforced by injury (though there must be a few). So it seems fairly unlikely that Root will hand over for two matches only to pick back up again. If he’s no longer captain, it probably sends the signal that he’s not up to it/not up for it and that’s a difficult position to lead the other blokes from. I appreciate it’s not necessarily rational but that’s probably the way that it would be seen.
The media are going to savage England come what may. It’s probably not worth giving them something else to have a go at but it should be a secondary consideration I think.
I’m not totally sure whether Cook being captain would have made a lot of difference. It might have relieved some pressure from Root, I guess, but it’s not like it’s going to make Mo and Broad fitter, or Woakes start bowling more threateningly.
It’s not helped that Root’s vice captain is currently awaiting charge from Bristol and South West Police. And that his current VC, Anderson, has already had a pop at some of the coaching staff on this tour.
The question is often asked in England, as alluded to by Cumbrian, as to whether the preponderance of shorter formats is affecting the ability of the team to play Test matches. Judging by the results you mention, perhaps it is affecting all countries in a similar manner.
I really don’t understand what is taking so long in the Stokes case. I haven’t seen it first-hand, but by all accounts the evidence is pretty clear-cut - certainly, I would think, enough to offer a realistic prospect of conviction (which I believe is the threshold for the CPS to press charges). If there is any doubt, it should be argued in court. I can only assume whoever is in charge of the case is an Australian cricket fan.
The question of too many short format games is always aired when a team is losing. And I guess it has some credence, but what was blamed before it existed?
A very good English captain was Mike Smith in the 60’s. He wouldn’t hold his place as a batsman on stats but he was a very astute captain. I always assumed it was Australia who selected the best batsman as Captain- and that doesn’t work all the time. Ponting was a very good batsman and a rather average captain, but I don’t think his average fluctuated much. Clarke was a polarising captain but he still seemed to bat very well.
I guess that the captain who was picked most for force of personality was Douglas Jardine, but that is another thread.
As for the current series, I think that both sides have problems. England has a fading bowling attack, Australia has a very good bowling force but a very iffy batting line up. If Smith- and to a lesser extent Warner are removed it is obvious how brittle it is.
I too, have found Smith’s emergence as one of the best at the moment as intriguing. I never saw that coming.
I doubt that the English judicial system bothers much with the Cricket calendar, but I do get your humour. Strange he can play in NZ but not Australia.
However, what happens if he is found guilty? I understand that well back in the past many cricketers had - let us say tarnished lives- but as we are seemingly trying to project a clean image, I have no idea how he will be treated. Is it worse than match fixing?
As far as I’m concerned (and I suspect most cricket fans, though obviously I can’t speak for others) I would have thought that if charges are dropped or he is charged but cleared in court, he should be able to resume his career on a level footing with anyone else, albeit there will always be that cloud. Hopefully he will use the experience to improve himself as a person. If he is convicted, I would expect him to be treated in the same way as any other ex-con - i.e. [del]he can go and play for Australia[/del] I mean, once he has served whatever sentence and any conditions that are imposed, he can seek employment once again. In the latter case I guess the road back is rather longer, if he makes it at all, but I don’t think it would be an automatic bar to playing professionally again, or even for the national team.
Jim Maxwell made the same sort of comment after watching him and previous videos of Bradman. For me it is a bridge too far. There will only ever be one Bradman- he is the outlier of all outliers and cricket has changed far too much to see another.
I say that in hoping he (Smith) really goes on with it and does dominate the worlds bowling. However, I have seen so many come and go- all extremely talented, but no, never another Bradman. And I acknowledge that the batsmen have a lot more in their favour these days.
Counterpoint: I really hope he doesn’t. Or at least stops dominating England’s bowling.
Re: Stokes. Two things. A bloke I work with was the victim of an almost identical assault to the one Stokes is likely to be accused of - right down to a facial fracture. It took about 6 months before a charge came down and it took a further 18 months before the matter hit court. It is likely that this is going to drag on for a while. Secondly, a custodial sentence is not out of the question, given the injuries inflicted - but, assuming this is Stokes’ first offence, there’s a good chance he’s going to get community service or some such - especially if they can prove mitigating factors.
I expect him to be back playing for England in relatively short order but I would be surprised if he does so before a CPS decision is made and if he’s to be charged, I can see him not playing until the matter is resolved, just from a PR point of view.
Cumbrian, it must have been horrible for your friend and obviously have no recondite knowledge of the Stokes affair. I think most people have seen the CCTV of the incident and it did look ugly- no matter the provocation. I suppose if your summary is correct (and I don’t doubt it) he won’t be the first test cricketer to lose part of his career due to other events. A good number lost their best years to various wars. Also Doug Walters lost a few years I think to conscription during the Vietnam era.
And many years ago I believe and English wicket keeper couldn’t come to Australia as he was in the slammer in NZ, and an Australian Test Cricketer was tried for murder (after his Test career of one Test was over)
I see Stokes is returning to England from NZ so it is extremely unlikely he will be part of the season.
Starc out of the next Test. He really has been injury prone which is a shame given his talent, but Jackson Bird is a more than handy replacement. Why he has no contract is beyond me.
Nor today, either, thank goodness. Best day of the tour for the tourists, when I briefly listened last night (half past midnight UK time, so at the first drinks break) Aus were 285/4 or some such, and I was thinking we would have another mountain to climb. To change that to 327 all out is a great performance. It just shows that English bowlers can take wickets even in conditions not perfect for them. The real story of course is Cook and Root, both have probably saved their careers for at least one more series now, and if one or both can push on tomorrow, England have a real chance in the game. Still, runs on the board are better than wickets in hand, as the old saw goes, so I’m not counting any chickens - one good session for them could swing things back to Australia (as has happened many times already).
Certainly England’s day. I have seen no play and just going on the reports from Cricinfo. Play has been rather slow and if England bats all day tomorrow it will be difficult for Australia. However it does seem rather pedestrian. As England are still behind by about a session in terms of runs at the current rate A draw or England win at this stage.