sussexpob wrote:I think the problem is D/L, and this is what AC was getting at, is when a captain is spoon feed everything from his endless backroom staff and given an execution plan that is worked out over months of apparent boffin crunching, then when it comes to the plan failing these guys dont have the wits about them to adapt. Cook is clearly a perfect example of this, he never deviates from the plan because he doesnt know how to.....when his positioning is successful it isnt him.
I think that is the point D/L, and one that I know you semi-share with your views on modern captains. Nowadays you still need a man in charge who takes the balls by the horns and is capable of being a leader on the pitch, no matter what is said of it. Clarke does that, he tinkers with his fields and makes bold decisions, he doesnt let the game drift.
this was also true when Strauss was captain. Even back when Ottis Gibson was the bowliong coach (so this is most of Flowers tenure), If a bowling plan didn't work, nothing changed until lunch when Gibson suggested something else. If that didn't work, nothing would change until after tea.
Used to drive me nuts watching (I had sky in those days)
The arrival of Saker pretty much coincided with the 'Broad the enforcer' nonsense. Even though the world and his dog could see that it was a stupid tactic, they persisted with it until finally Saker himself got the point and came up with something different
This might just be a symptom of bringing young players with lots of potential into the side, of course. It almost has to follow that 'learning on the job' means 'do as you're told', and so we end up with lots of cricketers with little understanding of the game, and then make one of them captain, and expect him to think on his feet. I'm not even sure that modern England coaches even want a captain with a mind of their own..... might rock the boat!
I might be completely misremembering this, but I seem to recall a time when England captains were expected to already be, or have been, captain of their county............ and when times were tough, and we were running out of captains, we had to resort to calling up Chris Cowdrey as captain of the national side, despite having very little international experience. Seems that no matter what we do we *modded* it up.