Former England skippers Bob Willis and Ian Botham slam ECB’s triple captaincy plan
Former English skippers, Ian Botham and Bob Willis, have lashed out at England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)’s decision of adopting the three-pillared approach – appointing separate captains for each format of the game.
A few days ago, ECB appointed Alastair Cook as England’s new One-Day captain while Stuart Broad was assigned the responsibly to lead the English team in Twenty20 cricket.
However, Andrew Strauss retained the captaincy of Test cricket. Cook replaced Strauss as one-day captain while Broad took over the reins of Twenty20 from Paul Collingwood.
Expressing his concerns over Cook’s appointment as 50-over captain, Willis termed Strauss's choice of sticking to just five-day cricket as ‘very disappointing’.
He further mocked the Ashes-winning skipper for citing fatigue factor as the major reason behind his exit from One-Day cricket.
“Three captains? It’s a bad idea. How can you have three captains?” Willis said.
The former English pacer added, “I was very disappointed with Andrew Strauss. He says he’s tired after a long winter – poor chap. Alastair Cook was not even in the original 30 for the World Cup and the only reason Stuart Broad is Twenty20 captain is because he is the only player guaranteed to be in the team apart from Kevin Pietersen and they have already gone down that line.”
Likewise, Botham also expressed his reservations over ECB’s decision. He believed that appointing Cook as the One-Day skipper is not a good idea.
“He is just really establishing himself as a Test batsman. He will be tempted to change his technique and try to nurdle quick runs and I think that will cost him Test runs,” Botham said.
The former flamboyant all-rounder explained that he was shocked by Cook's appointment as One-Day captain, as he was not even able to make a place in the England's ODI squad this year.
However, Botham wished him all the best for new job and hoped that he would deliver his one hundred percent to put http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c749 back on the winnings ways in the 50-over game.
English side is due to go against the Lankan Lions in the three match Test series later this month.
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