Shut your eyes and think of England.

[Arthur Crabtree]

The Test team has been doing badly under Cook. And until he was let go before the WC, he's lost five ODI series in a row.

I don't say Cook is the only thing wrong with the England team. far from it. But with a poor reputation as a leader and a strategist, his batting becomes even more important (his success as England skipper in India depended on it). And he's batting badly. His technique isn't good, but I suppose it never was. What he had was concentration, patience, confidence and ambition. Currently, they're not enough. I think he should step down as Test captain and just think about batting. But I think Steely lacks the necessary humility.

[rich1uk]

At the end of the day, Cook needs to go out and score runs. It's all well and good him whinging, but he's been dire for a fair old while. A poor summer may see the back of him, hard to think that it has come to this.

And so it should. At least at that stage we may well have an experienced alternative, perhaps Root or Ali. Change for change' s sake is counter productive as we've recently seen.

it wasn't change for change's sake , it was a necessary to change to try and improve the team , it didn't work but it had to be done

[westoelad]

At the end of the day, Cook needs to go out and score runs. It's all well and good him whinging, but he's been dire for a fair old while. A poor summer may see the back of him, hard to think that it has come to this.

And so it should. At least at that stage we may well have an experienced alternative, perhaps Root or Ali. Change for change' s sake is counter productive as we've recently seen.

it wasn't change for change's sake , it was a necessary to change to try and improve the team , it didn't work but it had to be done

Of course there was a need for change but where's the logic in having a replacement with no one day captaincy experience and who was in equally if not worse form with the bat?

[westoelad]

The Test team has been doing badly under Cook. And until he was let go before the WC, he's lost five ODI series in a row.

I don't say Cook is the only thing wrong with the England team. far from it. But with a poor reputation as a leader and a strategist, his batting becomes even more important (his success as England skipper in India depended on it). And he's batting badly. His technique isn't good, but I suppose it never was. What he had was concentration, patience, confidence and ambition. Currently, they're not enough. I think he should step down as Test captain and just think about batting. But I think Steely lacks the necessary humility.

I don't know Cook personally so I couldn't comment on any lack of humility. He appears to be strong willed and determined and I've always regarded these as commendable qualities.

[rich1uk]

Of course there was a need for change but where's the logic in having a replacement with no one day captaincy experience and who was in equally if not worse form with the bat?

he had been cook's understudy as ODI captain for the last couple of years , his form is also irrelevant to cook's situation, we weren't replacing cook with morgan , if cook had stayed in the team morgan would have still been there anyway

the mistake was we replaced cook with ballance in the squad not that we replaced cook as captain with morgan

[westoelad]

Of course there was a need for change but where's the logic in having a replacement with no one day captaincy experience and who was in equally if not worse form with the bat?

he had been cook's understudy as ODI captain for the last couple of years , his form is also irrelevant to cook's situation, we weren't replacing cook with morgan , if cook had stayed in the team morgan would have still been there anyway

the mistake was we replaced cook with ballance in the squad not that we replaced cook as captain with morgan

Sorry but I don't understand. We'll just beg to differ.

[captaincolly]

Interesting comments by Graves-defeat to the "mediocre" West Indies would lead to serious questions being asked-implication is that sackings would result.
A loss to NZ in the test series would be "very disappointing", whereas a draw would be acceptable.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/32037349

I know England came a cropper in the first test of the previous WI tour and ended up losing the series but I can't imagine any result this time other than an easy England win. NZ though will be, to put it mildly, far more tricky. Suppose the fact that a lot of their team will have limited preparation ahead of the first test( thanks to the IPL) boosts our chances.

[rich1uk]

don't see how I could be much clearer

if we had kept cook on as captain then morgan would still have been in the team as well, so we would have had 2 out of form players

so by dropping at least one of them we at least tried to improve the team

focussing on morgan taking over as captain after cook being dropped is just a red herring , the real issue was who we actually replaced cook in the squad with and did that change help us and imo the real mistake was nothing to do with morgan but replacing cook with ballance

[westoelad]

don't see how I could be much clearer

if we had kept cook on as captain then morgan would still have been in the team as well, so we would have had 2 out of form players

so by dropping at least one of them we at least tried to improve the team

focussing on morgan taking over as captain after cook being dropped is just a red herring , the real issue was who we actually replaced cook in the squad with and did that change help us and imo the real mistake was nothing to do with morgan but replacing cook with ballance

Sorry so I'm thick-thanks.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Steely's interview suggests he now sees himself as a victim, whose grand project, the Test side, has been damaged by the incompetence of others. As if he's never been near the ODI side. As if Morgan wasn't given the captaincy of a vessel already sinking!

Well with teams now having batting, fielding and bowling coaches, a team manager and having no say in selection is the test captain not a victim?

If you're suggesting that the captain doesn't really have a role anymore beyond as a player, I don't really go along with that. A good captain is a huge positive to the side. We can think of many examples. But if that is the supposition, then we have to judge Steely by his runs. Which does him no favours. And he does see himself as being more influential than that- he pictures himself mending the team after the two early wc losses.

[westoelad]

Steely's interview suggests he now sees himself as a victim, whose grand project, the Test side, has been damaged by the incompetence of others. As if he's never been near the ODI side. As if Morgan wasn't given the captaincy of a vessel already sinking!

Well with teams now having batting, fielding and bowling coaches, a team manager and having no say in selection is the test captain not a victim?

If you're suggesting that the captain doesn't really have a role anymore beyond as a player, I don't really go along with that. A good captain is a huge positive to the side. We can think of many examples. But if that is the supposition, then we have to judge Steely by his runs. Which does him no favours. And he does see himself as being more influential than that- he pictures himself mending the team after the two early wc losses.

You appear to know Cook far better than I do. A captain needs to have power to exercise authority yet we have other people selecting the team,what is the manager's role if he doesn't have an input into tactics?Saker,you said yourself,was mainly responsible for bowling tactics so exactly how much freedom does the modern England captain have? You're making your own interpretations on Cook' s responses to questions put to him. Quite frankly some of your comments are on a par with red top journalism.

[rich1uk]

I would expect a captain to be able to think on his feet , identify when the prepared plans weren't working and do something to change them , I cant remember many occasions, if any, that I have seen cook do that

only time I have ever seen changes in tactics or approach are following lunch and/or tea breaks when he has had a chance to speak to the coaching staff in the dressing room, something you don't get the opportunity to do in ODIs

go look at the comments being made by the ECB about him and its pretty hard to think anything other than him having a key role rather than just being the frontman

and btw despite my position he should never have been in the ODI team let alone captain of it I still back him in tests, altho I do think the captaincy has had a negative effect on him and it might be better for his batting to not be captain. what is more vital to the England test team, alastair cook the batsman or alastair cook the captain? a no-brainer for me.

[westoelad]

I would expect a captain to be able to think on his feet , identify when the prepared plans weren't working and do something to change them , I cant remember many occasions, if any, that I have seen cook do that

only time I have ever seen changes in tactics or approach are following lunch and/or tea breaks when he has had a chance to speak to the coaching staff in the dressing room, something you don't get the opportunity to do in ODIs

go look at the comments being made by the ECB about him and its pretty hard to think anything other than him having a key role rather than just being the frontman

and btw despite my position he should never have been in the ODI team let alone captain of it I still back him in tests, altho I do think the captaincy has had a negative effect on him and it might be better for his batting to not be captain. what is more vital to the England test team, alastair cook the batsman or alastair cook the captain? a no-brainer for me.

Wholly concur with your sentiments but options for changes in tactics or approach are very limited given the sameness of the present England attack. The bowlers themselves don't appear to be able to think on their feet and change tac-surely they've got to take some responsibility. As for making bowling changes Cook is very restricted by the limited resources,right arm seamers, no left arm of any form, no metronomic accurate medium fast men, no shock and awe 90mph+. There's no experienced alternative out there a la Brearley, Close or Illingworth.That's why we need to back Cook rather than sack him. England captains come under immense scrutiny from the media these days,the difficult summer ahead is no time to breed a rookie captain.

[rich1uk]

I would expect a captain to be able to think on his feet , identify when the prepared plans weren't working and do something to change them , I cant remember many occasions, if any, that I have seen cook do that

only time I have ever seen changes in tactics or approach are following lunch and/or tea breaks when he has had a chance to speak to the coaching staff in the dressing room, something you don't get the opportunity to do in ODIs

go look at the comments being made by the ECB about him and its pretty hard to think anything other than him having a key role rather than just being the frontman

and btw despite my position he should never have been in the ODI team let alone captain of it I still back him in tests, altho I do think the captaincy has had a negative effect on him and it might be better for his batting to not be captain. what is more vital to the England test team, alastair cook the batsman or alastair cook the captain? a no-brainer for me.

Wholly concur with your sentiments but options for changes in tactics or approach are very limited given the sameness of the present England attack. The bowlers themselves don't appear to be able to think on their feet and change tac-surely they've got to take some responsibility. As for making bowling changes Cook is very restricted by the limited resources,right arm seamers, no left arm of any form, no metronomic accurate medium fast men, no shock and awe 90mph+. There's no experienced alternative out there a la Brearley, Close or Illingworth.That's why we need to back Cook rather than sack him. England captains come under immense scrutiny from the media these days,the difficult summer ahead is no time to breed a rookie captain.

and that's why I have said I don't really have a problem with him remaining as captain even tho my preferred option would be for him to concentrate solely on his batting as his captaincy skills, to an outsider looking in anyway, appear lacklustre at best so no reason why anyone else couldn't do at least as good a job at it

I don't really agree that a captain has limited options just solely around the amount of variety in the bowling attack, how aggressive they are with field placings, when to swap bowlers around, how long spells to give bowlers and this obsession we seem to have with back of a length bowling are all things a good captain will play around with

when cook was ODI captain you could basically predict in advance which bowlers were going to be bowling at what points as the premeditated plans were the same from match to match and hardly ever changed. in cook's defence morgan wasn't much better, I almost threw something at my TV when he was interviewed after the sri lanka game and asked about being flexible with the batting order and he said it was something they were prepared to do in the right situation. well that situation must be very very very specific as I can hardly remember the last time we did change the batting lineup regardless of the timing of wickets falling.

bottom line it all comes back in my opinion to the rigid and overly structured management setup that flower put in place and moores seems to have just continued, where they over-analyse things and no-one in the setup seems to be encouraged to actually think for themselves

[westoelad]

Yeh but it does come down to resources. Aggressive field placing is reliant upon bowlers bowling to that field and bowling changes become less important when we're replacing like with like.I fully agree that Cook is a very limited captain.