"Ego" Pietersen will seek new authority as captain

England Cricket / Ralph Ellis / 04 August 2008 / Leave a Comment

England legends disagree on whether England's best is their most natural leader, says Ralph Ellis.

In one sense Kevin Pietersen, the big, powerful batsman who left South Africa behind to become an Englishman, is the obvious choice to be the new captain. Quite simply he's the only player who is guaranteed his place in the Test team, one-day internationals and Twenty20 games.

In every other sense you can't help feeling it's a disaster waiting to happen. Think back to Ian Botham as captain. Think more recently of Andrew Flintoff. There are some players designed to be the slightly maverick force of nature within the team and others with the force of personality and cool head to lead it. All the evidence so far suggests that Pietersen falls in the first bracket.

His one attempt at cricket's equivalent of wearing the armband so far was less than distinguished. Put in charge for the final One Day International against New Zealand at Lord's after Paul Collingwood's suspension, he presided over a fairly miserable performance. England lost by 51 runs, committed the cardinal sin of failing to bat out their overs, and never looked like a team. What was worse was that Pietersen himself failed dismally getting out for just six.

So can the man the South Africans call "ego" find the cool authority needed to be a captain? And will his determination to lead from the front and make a big score every time he bats be a help, or just add more nerves and bring more low scores as it did at Lord's? As the Daily Mail's main inside headline says this morning, "prepare for a bumpy ride." The Mail and the Sun's John Etheridge, incidentally, also reveal that KP needed a clear the air meeting with coach Peter Moores before agreeing to take the job.

Former England skipper Nasser Hussain certainly doesn't rate Pietersen's chances of successfully adapting his get up and go personality to be a leader. "When I think of Pietersen I think of what Duncan Fletcher used to say," he writes in his authoritative Mail column. "Duncan never wanted his best player as captain because he feared it might take something away from his game, like it did with Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff."

Not surprisingly Botham himself takes a different view. In his Daily Mirror column he argues: "As good a player as KP is now, the extra responsibility might just send him on to a higher plane. Don't give me any of this nonsense about the captaincy having a bad effect on his batting, because I'll ask you whether the Australian captaincy has had a bad effect on Ricky Ponting's batting? NO. Has the Sri Lankan captaincy had a bad effect on Mahela Jayawardene's batting? NO."

If Botham's right then you'd back Pietersen who is [2.02] at the moment to finish England's top scorer for the series. He'll start the last test four runs ahead of Ian Bell [2.54]. But the big fear is that Hussain is more accurate, and a price of [2.86] for the tourists to win the final Test at The Oval looks more than generous. If you followed my tip to lay the draw before Edgbaston you made money. This time it's favourite again at [2.22] but with a promising weather forecast and England's team in disarray it's hard to look beyond Graeme Smith's side wrapping up a 3-0 series victory.

Five things you might not know about England cricket captains:

1. James Lillywhite was the first captain of an England Test team, taking a side to Australia for two matches in 1876

2. England have played more Test matches, and had more captains, than any other country

3. In early matches the skipper was selected by the organisers of the home ground, who nearly always picked the local hero

4. Len Hutton in 1952 was the first professional to be made captain in the modern era. Until then the side was always led by an amateur nominated by the MCC

5. Hutton's successor Peter May, who took over in 1955, was in charge for 41 matches - the longest reign of anybody until Mike Atherton who did 54