as captain, it’s not ideal.
But there has been previous and that had a reasonably good outcome. I seem to recall the star player, the saviour, stood down as England cricket captain back in 1981, the job was given to a safe pair of hands and that worked pretty well in the end, a game at Headingley springs to mind.
Things were similar back then Botham resigned the captaincy after a loss and a draw, just like now and it was clear back then as now that if he hadn’t quit he would have got the boot as would have happened to Pietersen if he hadn’t rushed out that resignation letter on that flight “home”.
At the time Botham was on a bad trot with the bat and his captaincy hadn’t enamoured the stuffed shirts, the former isn’t something you could say about Pietersen but when he decided to play his trump card, me or him, he found it wasn’t just the hierarchy at Lord’s that didn’t have his back. When you’re captain and the team don’t stick behind you then it’s going to be tough to try and lead them on the pitch.
The thing is Pietersen was right to want rid of Moores as coach, he wasn’t working and really hadn’t since the start, act in haste, repent at leisure. Players, some with great promise others without, have gone backwards, they don’t seem to have a clue what’s going on out there. Never mind a plan B there doesn’t seem to be a plan A, after the stupid huddle it’s a free for all do what you want job, but they have a nice run about and game of footy after thanks to Moores’ coaching.
And then there’s the post match waffle, how can one man spout so many words without saying anything? That is the one plus about Pietersen going as well, as I said when he got the job I don’t know if I could be putting up with KP saying “we’ll take positives from this” or “we’ll learn from this” in that whiney accent.
I asked at the time would KP do the right thing for the team or the right thing for KP. Well in a way he tried to do both and came totally unstuck, finding that being the best player in the side means nothing if you ain’t got no mates.
I said before the last Ashes debacle that Strauss should have got the job ahead of Freddie, he’d done a good job standing in for Vaughan, it hadn’t affected his play in fact it seemed to concentrate his mind more on the task. Also after having a good shot at the captaincy it was an insult not to get a look in when Vaughan wasn’t available which seemed to have a detrimental effect on Strauss’ batting, which took some time to get over and he was close to losing his test place.
Now we just need KP’s ego to come to the fore, for him to feel he has something to prove and to show how great a batsman he is in the coming year and make Strauss’ job that little bit easier.