Our Captain Sucks!

Referring to Flintoff, as Captain, that is. As a player and a man he’s a total legend, but I couldn’t think of the best way of describing the irony, nay hipocrisy of the whole England team Captain / management / selection issue. Here’s a brief timeline:

1. Flintoff appointed Test captain, England lose 5-0
2. Flintoff loses some ODIs
3. Vaughan recovers from knee injury, leads England in a ODI, England win
4. Vaughan injures hamstring, Flintoff resumes captaincy, England lose
5. Vaughan recovers, resumes captaincy, England win
6. Fletcher says “Flintoff best when not captain!”
7. Vaughan injures hamstring again, Flintoff announced to resume captaincy for the CB Trophy finals

It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to see that something is not quite right here. It is certainly a predicament, after all, Fletcher is scared witless about hurting the ego of his main man and equally scared witless of admitting he was wrong in the first place. The facts are simple: Flintoff is not a good captain and he’s a fantastic player when he’s not captain. We’ve seen it, we know it. So why on earth are they persevering with him as captain? It really is time to face facts and find a different captain. Perhaps Andrew Strauss is the man, as about the most senior man left in the team. But not Flintoff.

Unfortunately, this problem doesn’t seem like going away anytime soon, as despite leaving the Ashes tour early (after arriving late, no less) Vaughan is adamant that he will play in the World Cup. Therein lies the problem – sure, he might actually get to the World Cup, but how long will he last out there before he is injured again? And what happens then? Flintoff to captain? Nobody honestly expects England to get very far in the World Cup, but it would be nice to go in to it with at least a fighting chance.