I must say I feel somewhat like a wagon driver this week, I'm the man holding the reins who turns suddenly to find any number of people have jumped on as I slowed for the turn in the road. It seems extraordinary to me that it took England losing not just the 2020 and ODI series to Sri Lanka (almost forgiveable and certainly not unexpected) but the test series as well; a trinity of losses finally provided the wake-up call that people needed. The fact is that Alastair Cook is a poor captain. I remember being struck by this more than 12 months ago - I will go into the timeline of his tenure shortly - and that it has taken so many draws against averages sides and losses to top sides to drive this home to people is sad. Now, I can hear the chorus already singing 'say what you like about his leadership, he's a fine batsman' and you won't hear me argue against that in this post - although I would happily contend at another time, with more space to write that he is both a better and worse batsman than people think. Actually I would suggest that the qualities which make Cook such a success as a batsman are the real reason he is such a failure as a captain; he is not just a poor captain but he was always going to be a disappointment.
Alastair Cook debuted in the new age of English cricket brought in by Duncan Fletcher, Nassar Hussain and Michael Vaughan. He enjoyed a great deal of success as an obdurate, patient and straightforward opening batsman to partner Andrew Strauss. He made a number of hundreds early in his career including a defiant and ultimately unsuccessful century in Perth (2006/07 Ashes) before experiencing a true run of bad form in 2010, his place only saved by a hundred at The Oval in the last test of the English summer. This effort allowed his selection for the Ashes of 2010/11 where he made 766 runs to power his team to a convincing 3-1 victory and cemented his reputation as the finest opening bat going around. This was followed by big hundreds against Sri Lanka and India at home during a 4-0 drubbing of the supposed best team in the world. His powers of concentration, patience and no small amount of technique to back these qualities up with allowed him to wear down opposition attacks on most pitches and keep them down until he, and consequently England, triumphed. Nothing controversial here so far - my apologies but I had to begin with a throat-clearing about his undoubted success as a batsman.
Cook rose through the ranks of the team to be named captain when Andrew Strauss retired in 2012. His first series was a hugely successful tour of India where, after losing the first test, he helped bat his side to victory in the series (with some help from Kevin Pietersen and Monty Panesar). This served to quell many of the arguments against his appointment at the time because it seemed to prove he could lead the side AND score the runs required at the top of the order; I'm sure I agreed with this assessment at the time although doubts crept in soon after. I think it is clear that this has not been the case for Cook since that series and I would offer the following explanation. If Cook is a poor captain - I know I have barely begun to discuss this but bare with me - then he has nothing on the failures of MS Dhoni who, despite possessing one of the less penetrating bowling attacks going around, is content to sit and wait for victory to materialise. I contend that this is the perfect situation for Cook to produce runs because there's nothing to challenge him, this certainly explains why his record against captains Clarke and McCullum has been so poor.
Anyway, after this encouraging start to his captaincy stint he drew 0-0 in New Zealand, won 2-0 against the same opposition back in England before retaining the Ashes 3-0 at home. Despite the successful scoreline it was clear to me that it was really the talent of his team and in particular his bowlers during this 9 months that allowed such a scoreline in his favour. His leadership in New Zealand was extremely complacent, boring and lacking in any imagination; amounting to simply pointing the Anderson/Broad/Swann attack at the opposition and saying 'destroy that'. It was little better against Australia who should have been overwhelmed in more convincing fashion. His captaincy style is all a holding-pattern, just keeping things tight and to the plan until victory turns up. It almost appears (and I hate to have to say this) that while he has the talent at his disposal, Cook believes he has a right to win test matches. It's combining the worst elements of his predecessors and everything that Duncan Fletcher tried to eradicate from the England mindset a decade before. By the time you get to the 5-0 drubbing by Australia this year it's not ever Cook's direct fault any more because the complete lack of form from the entire team allowed a resurgent Australia to trample them, it's probably true that more inventive captaincy on his part may have carved a number or two off the scoreline but ironically I don't really blame him for the series loss.
The problem really is that the English selectors picked the captain they wanted. Tall, handsome, easy to manage, attended the right schools, etc. He had the pedigree to be a throw back to old captains like Hutton, Hammond and others (well at least to caricatures of old captains anyway). His recent comments regarding the criticism from Shane Warne actually included the line 'something must be done' which almost sums it up. In any case he is clearly strained and out of form and should have the captaincy removed if he will not relinquish it himself. It would be sad to watch him try and wait it out like he does when he bats - Alastair you're not wearing the opposition down in this fight son, you're battling with yourself.
At the end of the day Cook's leadership really is too much like his batting and relies too heavily on a staring contest with the opposition. The same qualities that afford him success as an opening batsman lead to the downfall of his captaincy. This is the tragedy of his career, the fault that sets all of his purposes at naught.
Well that's it from here and I hope you join me again
It's good bye for now
