No other England player has captained his country in more Tests than Yorkshireman Joe, but the downside is that he’s yet to win an Ashes series under the skipper’s hat
England captain Joe Root at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday. Pic/Getty Images
Cricket never stops throwing up ironies. Joe Root, the most vilified man in English cricket today, has now led in 60 Tests—the most by any England captain after Alastair Cook’s 59. The Yorkshireman is currently in the throes of cricket depression; his team unable to loosen Australia’s recent grip on the urn despite the men from Down Under not winning an Ashes series in England since Steve Waugh’s team did so in 2001.
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Root can be accused of unimaginative captaincy, but he plays in an era where the captain is not the sole boss of the team. The coach and the respective cricketing ecosystem can never be taken out of the equation. Yet, the captain is the guy who ends up with most wounds and the scars stay.
There’s a good chance the series will end in a 0-5 rout of England and Root will be replaced as captain. Some critics reckon mercurial all-rounder Ben Stokes will be a good choice to take over. But as former captain David Gower pointed out the other day, Stokes has plenty on his plate what with his comeback to international cricket not being smooth post a mental issues-caused break.
If at all Stokes takes over from Root, cricket enthusiasts will be reminded of Ian Botham’s appointment as captain when Mike Brearley first quit in 1980. But it must be said that Botham’s captaincy years were disastrous and it took a comeback from Brearley to win the 1981 Ashes in England. Botham does not illuminate the list of England captains through the years — losing four and drawing eight Tests in the dozen games he led.
“Although I made mistakes, I felt I was learning from every one [of them]. I felt, too, that I had learned the art of man management after what the England team had been through in the West Indies [1981] —the Robin Jackman Affair, the cancellation of the second scheduled Test in Guyana, a week of living out of a suitcase not knowing whether the tour was on or off and the tragic death of [manager] Ken Barrington during the Test match in Barbados which took away a man who had been a second father to me,” wrote Botham in The Incredible Tests 1981. Obviously, the English authorities did not read too much into that. For, he was never called to lead England again after the second Test of the 1981 Ashes.
Brearley’s record is impressive—18 wins and only four losses in a 1977-1981 span. He won three Ashes series [1977, 1978-79 and 1981] while the 0-3 loss to Australia in 1979-80 was witnessed when the Ashes were not at stake. Losing just that one series as captain said much of his captaincy and handling of men, but he didn’t have to lead England against the best team in the world—the West Indies.
There are some very successful leaders in that list of England captains, who captained in five or more Tests, which dates back to FT Mann, who led in 1922. There are names like Peter May, who stayed in the record books for over three decades as the captain who led England for the most number of times—41, a mark surpassed when Nasser Hussain enjoyed a 45-Test tenure as captain. May captained the side for the first three Tests against India in 1959 when the hosts won 5-0 with Colin Cowdrey leading in the last two Tests.
Not all enduring English captains have enjoyed the distinction of winning an Ashes series. Mike Atherton (54 Tests as captain), Nasser Hussain (45) and Graham Gooch (34) didn’t. Gower’s 32-Test stint included the glorious 1985 Ashes win, but 10 of his 18 losses came against the all-conquering West Indies who were led by Clive Lloyd (in 1984) and Viv Richards (in 1985-86).
In the Bonus Features for the film Fire in Babylon, Gower, referring to leading the side on the 1985-86 tour of the Caribbean, remarked: “My ambitions have been crushed, my dreams have been crushed, my wrist has been crushed. Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. This has been three months that have been among the worst in my life. That is how I felt at the end of it.”
Among English captains who led in the 1980’s, Mike Gatting was highly rated, although the record books show he won only two Tests and lost five in the 23 Tests he walked out to toss for. The couple of victories were achieved against Australia where he won the 1986-87 Ashes.
His namesake Denness was the captain who inflicted a 3-0 whitewash on India in 1974, but his results against Australia were disastrous—four losses and one victory in six Tests as captain. The captain who can be really proud of his record in Ashes Tests is Andrew Strauss. He led England to victory in the 2009 Ashes at home and followed it up with a 3-1 triumph in Australia in 2010-11.
Incidentally, it will be Strauss, in his capacity as chief of the Cricket Committee, who will be reviewing England’s disastrous current Ashes tour. Back in the present, will Root be thrown a lifeline? Looks like the irony of captaining your country in a large number of Tests against the old enemy, but not winning an Ashes series, will stay.
mid-day’s group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
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