Current Test Captains: #2 England

Watching the 4th Ashes test as I write this, Alistair Cook looks as bedraggled as the team he leads.  Despite surrending the Ashes with barely a fight, he is still secure in his captaincy of England.  As much as anything, this is a result of there not being any obvious alternatives.  Ian Bell has just been appointed as Cook's vice-captain, but its not clear he fulfills many of the attributes of a captain-in-waiting other than the fundamental criteria of a) holding a secure place in the team and b) not being a bowler who is subject to injury concerns. 

Of course only a year ago, Matt Prior also fulfilled that criteria.  His collapse in form put his place in the team at risk; therefore, he needed to be replaced as vice-captain.  The loser in the captaincy stakes then appears to be Stuart Broad, who as the T20 captain could reasonably have expected  to have taken the deputy position for the test team now.  The issue every bowling candidate faces though is criteria b) above:   whether their physical ailments could cause them to miss games, as teams want their captain to be stable and consistent. I think Broad's day will come assuming his career outlasts Cook's but I was surprised England appointed Bell as the stand-in for now. 

To find alternatives in this touring team, you have to look down the list of other senior players. Prior is gone - or at least, has been "taken out of the firing line" for now.  Kevin Pietersen is almost unimaginable as captain today, given his short and tempestuous time in the office before Strauss.  (Surely Pietersen rivals only Ian Botham as the most disastrous appointments in English cricket history?)  With Swann now gone, Jimmy Anderson is the only other senior player. He is as durable as a bowler as anyone could wish, but having bowled more overs than almost anyone in the last few years, he seems to be on the verge of the decline that has previously taken the likes of Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison down.

And what of the next generation?  Almost as soon as he was elevated to the team, Joe Root was talked about as a future England captain.  With neither Broad nor Bell likely to play beyond the end of Cook’s prospective career, Root stands alone as the next long-term candidate.  If he does as well as his fellow Yorkshiremen, Hutton and Vaughan, he will be doing well indeed.

Most counties are captained by either overseas players who are expected to inspire their team mates to greater heights (Graham Smith at Surrey, Madsen at Derby, Klinger at Gloucester, Hall at Northants), former England players (Collingwood at Durham, Foster at Essex, Read at Notts,  Trescothick at Somerset, Key back again at Kent), or mostly aging journey-men will little prospect of getting a call for England (Wallace at Glamorgan, Adams at Hampshire, Chapple at Lancs, Boyce at Leics, Dexter at Middlesex, Peters newly appointed at Northants, Troughton at Warwicks, Mitchell at Worcs, Gale at Yorkshire). The only one not falling into one of these categories (i.e. with a reasonable chance of ever getting picked for England) is Ed Joyce at Sussex.  So don't look to the counties to answer who might be England's next captaincy prospect. 

Postscript:  Read Michaels Vaughan's interesting take on the situation; I like his thinking.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/theashes/10550821/Ashes-2013-14-Kevin-Pietersen-must-be-made-England-vice-captain-to-confront-yes-men.html .

Current Test Cricket Captains. #1 Australia

This is the first posting of what I hope will be an ongoing review of status of each of the current test cricket captains in international cricket, country by country.  I plan to update both their current status, given personal and team results, and the prospects of those who might succeed them.  The first ten postings will deal with each of the individual countries, in turn, and I welcome your reactions and hopefully reading your response to each. 

Let's get right to it.   Today's focus in on Australia: alphabetically first , and as usual topically one of the leading  cricketing nations....

Having just retaken the Ashes, Michael Clarke is currently sitting pretty. Its only been six months since serious questions were being asked -- perhaps unfairly given the 4th test against India was the first he had missed due to his chronic back problems.  Back then though, it was also clear there was a problem between him and his vice-captain, Shane Watson, a constant state of player tension. Then-coach Micky Arthur seems to have brought to everyone in the Australian camp, which surely unduly impacted Clarke as "first-among-equals" in the team.  On top of this, we wondered about Clarke's relationship with the rest of the team after the explicit revelations of Ricky Ponting's autobiography.  Given the performance problems with Australia's opening partnerships, another question was the ongoing echoes of Clarke's falling out with Simon Katich, which seem to be the major factor in Katich being arguably prematurely sidelined from international cricket. (Katich's impressive mentoring of younger team-mates in both state and county cricket surely adds to the sting of what-might-have been had Australia stuck by him?)

Today, on the back of three straight wins against England, Clarke's captaincy performance is seemingly transformed by the arrival of Darren Lehmann as coach, alongside many other aspects of the Australian team.  They seem to have quickly created the critical partnership of captain-coach that is part and parcel of the modern game.  So Clarke's status is virtually unquestioned as Australia's test captain. 

For now then, the questions turn to Clarke's prospective successor.  Brad Haddin has been a revelation as Clarkes new vice-captain, but it's only a short term situation given that Haddin may only be around for a short time.  There's lots of conjecture that the Ashes and perhaps the away tour to #1 South Africa are Haddin's swansong.  Surely he couldn't have a better end to an impressive career than going out on top of these two traditional foes.  He might even get a chance to lead the team if Clarke has another injury-forced absence.  But as the vice-captaincy is the usual stepping stone to the test captaincy, if Haddin retires, who comes next?

George Bailey is a late addition to the team and the jury is still out on his capabilities of holding a place in the test team:  he's done a good job as limited-overs captain, but doubts remain about the suitability of his batting technique to the test game.  These are most notably expressed by the universally esteemed "godfather" of Australian captains, Ian Chappell. Bailey seems at best to be in the same boat as Haddin:  a short term selection to fill a hole in that great intangible --  the culture of the team -- that was so glaringly exposed by the Indian tour debacles.  The Australian selectors have not trusted the captaincy to a struggling or unproven player since Kim Hughes' teary departure almost 30 years ago (if they ever did), and Bailey does not yet have the record and gravitas to suggest he's truly in possession of his test batting spot. Until he does, the captaincy is out of the question.

At the other end of the age spectrum, Steve Smith is often cited as a prospective Future Team Captain, but he is young and relatively inexperienced as a team leader and would be a risky vice-captain pick, given Clarke might one day have to again miss a game or -- heaven prevent! -- step down prematurely due to his back condition.  Other commentators point to whoever will be Haddin's successor as wicketkeeper to also fill the shoes of the vice-captaincy -- at least, until Smith is more established and seasoned as a test player, and that's where I count myself today.

Matthew Wade could be the one, given he filled in and then kept out Haddin as keeper previously, and is currently captain of his state, Victoria. He's who I would put my money on as the next vice-captain and therefore possible accidental captain of Australia, and Smith would be my pick as the next appointed and long-term captain once the Clarke era ends.  The bolter would be Peter Nevill, who is yet to play a test but also does everything right as a wicketkeeper-batsman in-waiting. He's 28 years old, and leads the New South Wales team that both Clarke and Smith return to in domestic cricket.  Wade is already more accomplished at age 25, and will benefit from that pattern that once they pick 'em, the Australian selectors tend to stick by their keepers rather than chopping and changing on a whim (see New Zealand). 

Whoever gets the job after Haddin, then, should have enough time to be established in the team once Clarke decides to call it a day (2015?) and I think will continue as vice-captain into the Smith regime then follows. Because Wade is not a New South Welshman like Haddin/Smith/Nevill/Warner, he also represents the geographical diversity that once was also a factor in picking the vice-captain/captin-in-waiting.  Spare a thought then also for Tim Paine (age 29), who was the #2 choice to Haddin years before Wade, and also occasional captain of Tasmania and Australia A until his unfortunate and serious finger injuries.  If Paine ever got elevated above Wade or Nevill, and re-established in the test team, like them he'd be in the running for the test vice-captaincy too.

Forget about:

David Warner for now, despite me dropping his name into the last paragraph.  He's simply too combustible -- great for batting, not so good for on- and off-field interactions with opposing players -- to be an option for the great office of Australian captain for the forseeable future. To be fair, once Ricky Ponting was in the same boat as a troubled player; only when  his life settled into a more stable situation did he go from strength to strength as a test player and ultimately an obvious choice as  future captain.  Perhaps there is still time for Warner to find the same path.  In contrast, Shane Watson's leadership aspirations are surely over, given the fall-out from India, and the "here-we-go-again" nature of his up and down performance as a test player.

Neither of the other domestic captains (Queensland's Justin Hopes, and Western Australia's Adam Voges) are likely to be picked for a test team, and both are now in their mid-30's.  South Australia's South African transplant Johan Botha is ineligible, even if he did not also fall into the "too old/not good enough" category of these two counterparts.