The Elephant in the Room

Whenever in the summer Shane Warne, or another pundit, questioned Alistair Cook’s captaincy, it was greeted with a standard response – look at his record. At the end of the summer Cook’s captaincy record stood at P16 W9 L1 D6, with England unbeaten in all series under his leadership. Three months later the Ashes have not so much been handed back as surrendered, Australia thumping England to win the first three Tests, not one of them close.

The problem is that when your standard response to a question about a captain’s ability is to point to his record, it highlights the absence of anything else to defend the captain with. No-one needed to point to Nasser Hussain’s, Michael Vaughan’s or Andrew Strauss’ records to defend the quality of their captaincy. The discipline of Hussain’s sides, the creativity of Vaughan’s sides, and the professionalism of Strauss’ sides were self evident. During the summer, very few people were saying Michael Clarke was a bad captain, as the imagination of his field settings and his bowling changes proved otherwise.

Cook’s captaincy identity is only marked by its lack of one. Hussain turned a bunch of lazy, mentally weak players into a tough international unit, demanding discipline from his team. The highlight of his reign, and maybe the greatest achievement by an England captain since I’ve been watching cricket, the back-to-back away series wins in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, were emblematic of his captaincy. In Pakistan, England grimly hung in until they were given an unlikely opportunity to steal the series in the Karachi gloom, which they did. In Sri Lanka, they were thrashed in the first Test. England sides of the past would have folded. Hussain’s England won the next two Tests, Hussain himself grinding out an immensely ugly but utterly vital hundred in the 2^nd Test, his second fifty and first hundred in thirteen Tests. Cook does not have the intense, demanding nature of Hussain, he will never be a captain like Hussain, occasionally scaring his own players, but empowering them with a fight to death.

In 2003, after the World Cup, the England team was beginning to unearth new talent. Bought up in a world of central contracts, the Trescothick, Flintoff, Hoggard and Harmison generation did not lead lessons on professionalism from Hussain. They needed a new leader, someone who would set them free. Michael Vaughan was that leader. Rules were relaxed, or had become part of the underlying culture, and England moved from a side that made themselves hard to beat to one that played to win. Vaughan’s captaincy was renowned for his easy going nature, and his immense tactical acumen. Although armed with a better bowling attack than Hussain, Vaughan had an extra ability to motivate these bowlers. Under Hussain they had not wanted to bowl a bad ball; under Vaughan they wanted to bowl good ones. Cook does not have the tactical feel for the game that Vaughan possessed, and instead of appearing relaxed on the field he often appears pensive.

After Vaughan, the next significant captain was Andrew Strauss, in company with coach Andy Flower. Strauss and Flower took the exciting brand of cricket that England had either played or attempted to play under Vaughan, and completely professionalised it. The players were better prepared, more confident, and the largest improvement on Vaughan, significantly better man managed off the field. England went from expecting to win series to knowing exactly how they would. Strauss was never the most creative captain, but always came prepared, and delivered England to number one in the world. Strauss and Cook are closest in terms of personality, but whereas the professionalism of the Strauss era bought together the best aspects of the side, under Cook (and not necessarily his fault) it has become restrictive on the side. Batsman play too defensively, bowlers are picked not on their ability to take wickets but on their ability not to concede runs, and on the field England seem afraid to express themselves.

Cook is not Hussain, he is not Vaughan, and he is not Strauss. But he has yet to find his own definition as captain, his own style of leadership. Until he does, he risks becoming England’s Ricky Ponting – a man destroyed by both his own inability to define his own captain’s reign, and was unable to escape the legacy of the three previous captains (Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh).

Whilst I am fairly down on Cook’s captaincy, I don’t think he should be removed. England have spent too much time investing in him as their captain to jettison him now, and more pertinently, there is no-one in that side who stands out as a better option. Only Stuart Broad seems to have more of the required skills, yet as a bowler his place will always be more open to question, and to injury.

Nor is Cook entirely to blame for the situation they currently find themselves in. The team culture is not entirely of his creation, the team not entirely of his selection and until now results have been good. He cannot be blamed for Jonathan Trott’s depression, three consecutive losses at the toss, the sudden health of Ryan Harris and a resurgent Mitchell Johnson’s form.

To move forward England need to help Cook by giving him someone, from outside of the England setup, to work with and help him improve as a captain. For a side that includes so many back room staff, and a game that necessitates so many specialist coaches, to not have a coach for a captain who has never captained his county before is a rare blind spot in England’s thinking. If Andy Flower and Graham Gooch think they could provide this, their own reputations as captains should make them think again. England should look to a Stephen Fleming style figure, a man who carved a distinctly average side into a hard playing, entertaining, New Zealand despite missing the third most talented cricketer they had produced in forty years, to help Cook, to allow him to bounce ideas off, including ideas that may involve criticism of management or individual players that would do him no favours if expressed in the dressing room. England’s era of holding the Ashes, started by Hussain, achieved by Vaughan and maintained by Strauss is over. Cook now has to create his own history.