Published: May 06, 2011, 12:34 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 22, 2014, 11:27 AM (IST)
By David Green
Alastair Cook has taken over the reins of the England ODI captaincy from Andrew Strauss.
The case for Cook
It is difficult to quibble with any honour bestowed on England’s Man of the series in the Ashes after looking at how Cook performed over the winter. On the surface he always seemed a likely replacement for Strauss at the top of the order. And even if his ODI record is average, he is a much better player now as Australia will testify. And like Strauss did, surely Cook can add the extra facets to his game required to be a big cheese on the one day stage. He certainly impressed for Essex in the CB40 over the last 12 months.
The case against Cook
Giving Cook the Freedom of the City of London is one thing, but making him the ODI captain? He wasn’t deemed good enough to get into England’s World Cup squad, so even if Strauss’ likely retirement leaves a vacancy at the top of the order, is Cook’s position in the team certain enough to make him captain too? To say that Cook hasn’t looked a natural captain to date is a massive understatement.
Who could have been the captain instead?
There isn’t exactly a long list of alternatives. The selectors would surely have baulked at giving Kevin Pietersen another chance, all the more because his ODI form has been abysmal for a long time now. Stuart Broad probably has too much on his plate with batting and bowling. Ian Bell looks to be Cook’s biggest challenger, and whilst he didn’t exactly set the World Cup alight and has a similar ODI record to Cook, he did look mighty impressive when captaining Warwickshire to CB40 success last summer.
Our verdict
Personally we’d have opted for Bell as we think he is better captaincy material, but England have vested too much in Cook as Strauss’ heir as Test captain so in that sense it wasn’t surprising to hear Cook’s announcement as captain.
(David Green is the brain behind the irreverent The Reverse Sweep blog and also writes for a number of cricket publications and sites such as World Cricket Watch. You can follow him on Twitter also @TheReverseSweep. David was a decent schoolboy and club cricketer (and scored his maiden 100 the same week that Sachin Tendulkar scored his first Test ton) but not good enough to fulfil his childhood dream of emulating Douglas Jardine by winning the Ashes in Australia and annoying the locals into the bargain. He now lives with his wife and two young children in the South of France and will one day write the definitive biography of Hedley Verity)
