From captaincy to counties: Is English cricket in need of a shakeup?

The English cricket season begins this coming week — ridiculously early, but no matter, for things being as they are, we may be quite likely to have sunshine in April and September, and sleet and snow in June and July. Be that as it may, there are two immediate questions after the dismal series in Australia and the West Indies. What to do about Joe Root’s captaincy and what to do about the counties?

The sensible — that is to say, conservative — answer to both might be “nothing” — but even conservatives may sometimes feel obliged to give reasons for their opinions, even though, as I’ve remarked here before, my model or even hero, in such matters, is the sometime President of the Scottish Rugby Union who said that the SRU’s response to any proposed innovation was to say “no” immediately, then consider the proposal and say “no” again.

I confess that on the Joe Root captaincy question Michael Atherton’s adherence to the “time’s up for Joe club” makes me pause to think. He is not only arguably the best cricket journalist today but was a brave and quite successful England captain who walked the plank of his own accord but continued to play for some years, quite successfully, under the captaincy of his successor, Nasser Hussein. 

Joe Root has now done five years as captain, which is quite a long prison sentence, and it’s quite reasonable to call “Time”, especially since England has won only one of their last seventeen Tests. But there is no obvious successor, and of the candidates now being discussed only Ben Stokes (vice-captain in both this winter’s tours) is sure of a place in the team. That said, his form this winter has been generally poor, but it might be that the captaincy would stimulate him. On the other hand, the last two outstanding all-rounders to captain England — Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff — were failures as captains.

The two great bowlers, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, controversially — perhaps fortunately — omitted from the West Indian series, have their supporters. Either would probably do the job capably. But they are getting on, have reached the creaking-joints age. How many Tests can either play in succession, especially now that these often come back-to-back?. They could of course have a joint turn-about captaincy, but that would be rather odd.

There are two reasons for Root to retain the job. The first is that it hasn’t broken him, as it has broken so many of his predecessors; he’s true Sheffield steel. Second, it hasn’t affected his batting which has been outstanding for the last fifteen months. Would he shine as brightly if demoted? Perhaps not. Colin Cowdrey, in the last years of his long Test career, made hundreds only when captain.

So the conservative answer holds good; no compelling need for change.

As for the counties, England needs more than conservatism. It needs reaction. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has shunted the county championship to the fringes of the season, more than half the matches being played in Spring and Autumn, very few in high summer. This is as sensible as staging Wimbledon in April or The Open in October, rather than July, would be. 

Worse still, by assuming control of Test cricketers by way of securing them on central contracts so that they belong to the ECB rather than to the counties, they have ensured that very few of them play any first-class county cricket at all. How often, for instance, have Root and Jonny Bairstow played for Yorkshire in the last five years? So young players have little opportunity to learn by playing alongside or against Test batsmen and bowlers. Alec Stewart, a Test star in his day and still a champion of the county game, recalled this week how Test players used to move between Test and County cricket throughout the summer — to the benefit of both. Nor, I think, does it help the county game that overseas players are now often brought in for a few weeks and a small handful of matches rather than for a whole season.

The present structure of the first-class game might have been devised by a malevolent mind to weaken both Test and county cricket. How would rugby clubs like Saracens and Exeter fare if they were denied their players for all but three or four matches a season? In cricket, it has been obvious for too long that the best way of winning the county championship is to lose none of your best England-qualified players to the England Test squad.

It doesn’t make sense. But then little that the ECB does makes sense. So England lose Test matches and the county championship withers.