The Poisened Chalice Of Captaincy

Michael Vaughan has gone home to treat his knee injury, leaving Marcus Trescothick in charge of the One-Day team. The appointment of Adam Hollioake as One-Day captain signalled the beginning of the end of Mike Atherton's captaincy of the Test team and so this could be the beginning of the end of Vaughan's captaincy. If so, who should be his successor?

With few exceptions a cricketer's form suffers when he is made captain. So it is interesting that all recent England teams have been reliant on the runs scored by their captains: Vaughan, Hussain, Stewart, Atherton, Gooch, Gower and Gatting. The reason for this is clear, the selectors do not want to be faced with having to consider dropping the captain due to his form.

Duncan Fletcher recently defended Vaughan by stating that the captain is an all-rounder, but the alternative would be to select the best available captain, even if as a player he is not worth his place in the side. This was certainly true of Mike Brearley, who averaged only 22.88 with the bat. Cricket is one of the few team games where passengers can be carried and the benefit of choosing such a captain would avoid burdening a star player who the team relies on.

I have no answers as to who should succeed Vaughan, but the selectors should remember the effect the captaincy had on Botham's form and then realise that England are too reliant on Flintoff the player to ever seriously consider the possibility of Flintoff the captain.