On Friday, Joe Root resigned as England captain and it was one of the best recent days for the England and Wales Cricket Board. It was, at least, a clarification in a fog of uncertainty. There is no president at the ECB, no director of cricket (although Rob Key is expected to be appointed after the Easter Bank Holiday), no coach and now no captain of testing. Not much room for complacency here. England have not been so rudderless since 1988, the summer of four Test captains.
The assumption is that Root jumped rather than being pushed since there is no one at the ECB to push him. Key, as a Sky pundit, criticized his role as captain, but I doubt that was decisive. Root has had time since the Caribbean tour to reflect and sit down with his loved ones and he has come to a logical conclusion.
I am happy to join the chorus on Root: that despite his limitations, he has been a captain totally dedicated to the job, the game and his players and that he should be applauded for his tenure.
England have had much worse captains. But there is no divine right to stay in control. It was time to change; in fact, the change was overdue but, after the Ashes, the lack of options dictated that Root should continue in the Caribbean. For his sake and that of the team, it’s time to try someone else.
He must leave with his head held high. To everyone’s relief but not surprisingly, he reaffirmed his dedication to playing Test cricket. While the gap between England’s top player (Root) and the rest has never been wider, they desperately need his runs. His departure spares Key, if he is to be the new manager, an awkward conversation.
Key’s likely nomination raised a few eyebrows. An oddity is that the list of those who said they were not interested in the job seems much longer than the list of those who are interested in the job, which does not paint a good picture of the ECB. Being employed by England is no longer considered a plum job; it is much more desirable to get an IPL gig for eight weeks or even a happy month in charge of one of the Hundred teams. The same could apply to the head coaching position, which Key has probably already given a lot of thought to.
If Key is nominated in the coming week, he may be the beneficiary of the candidate scarcity, but he has obvious attributes. He is an independent and consistent thinker, unafraid to challenge some of the accepted orthodoxies. Plus, he’s ready to jump his head over the parapet.
The pattern in England is for heavyweights (I’m the exception proving the rule here) to head to the comment box for a much more comfortable, pontificating life without responsibility. For example, the media commitments of Mike Atherton, Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan, all well qualified to chart the way forward, prevent them from occupying important positions within English cricket.
It is easier to pin down the candidates to be the next England captain than the next manager. England’s top coaches – Duncan Fletcher, Andy Flower and Trevor Bayliss – have come from abroad, but more big names are being drawn to India. Key may have to be the most persuasive to score one. However, it is almost unprecedented for anyone to refuse the title of England captain.
When considering his choice, Key must surely avoid looking too far ahead. It’s nice to announce “a five-year plan”, which is often just a clever ruse to explain away the latest debacle and as meaningless as a “red ball reset”, but the goal must be to get through the 2022 season without too many calamities rather than planning for 2024.
In consultation with the new coach, the ECB may have to opt for a provisional captain to take charge of the first four Tests of the summer (three against New Zealand, one against India) before reassessing. Sometimes the palliative can come as a surprise, the best example being Ray Illingworth in 1969. He was recruited as the perfect leader essential after the rupture of the Achilles tendon of Colin Cowdrey: he was 37 years old and had only been a player sporadic English; he could hold the fort until Cowdrey returned. Illingworth ended up doing the job for four years and won the Ashes in Australia. Forced change can pay dividends.
England are highly unlikely to take anyone out of the county circuit. The new captain will surely know the international configuration. There are three serious candidates, all with shortcomings. The favorite is Ben Stokes. Does he want the job? I doubt he can refuse. But should we consider the experiences of charismatic cricketers of the past when captained, such as Ian Botham, Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen? Yes, we should, which reinforces the idea of a short-term appointment. The England captaincy doesn’t have to be a four-year presidential term.
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Stuart Broad captained two unsuccessful T20 World Cup campaigns, in 2012 and 2014, but that shouldn’t be blamed on him. At 35, he might struggle to be ubiquitous, which shouldn’t rule him out either. The third option, Jos Buttler, was also absent in the Caribbean. He was rightfully dropped after the Ashes but he has a sharp brain, the experience of 57 Tests, the respect of Root and Stokes, and a higher Test batting average than Rory Burns.
So the experts can happily speculate while Key increasingly realizes that there are no perfect solutions.
