Is KP a worthy successor for the England captaincy?

England Cricket / Andrew Hughes / 30 June 2008 / Leave a Comment

Andrew Hughes watched carefully as Kevin Pietersen led the team out at Lord's on Saturday and orchestrated proceedings in the field. But is he a long-term solution for the cpataincy and if so, just what sort of captain will he be?

Last week saw a new storyline in the amazing comic book career of Kevin Pietersen, superstar. Six years ago, an unknown South African was stand-in skipper for Nottinghamshire 2nd XI against Lancashire Seconds. On that day, he piled up 113 in orchestrating a successful run chase. Last Saturday, he led a team down the pavilion steps for the second time in his life. Only this time the steps in question were at Lords' and the team was England.

The suggestion from some quarters that he was only captain by default may have been true to some extent, but seemed a little churlish. This is a team wet behind the ears, as their mumbling complicity in captain Collingwood's Oval faux pas demonstrated, but there were options. Cook, Bell and Shah all dabbled with captaincy at Under 19 level, Strauss has dutifully lugged his kit up and down the country for two weeks and would have been an ideal candidate and, if they had been willing to cast their net wider, Kent skipper Robert Key was not out of the question.

And how tempted was Geoff Miller by the idea of a Vaughan renaissance? Instant leadership, like instant coffee, is mighty convenient. But selectors are as finely tuned to the scent of looking foolish as a nervous rabbit on the Serengeti is to the odour of distant lions. A triumphant Vaughan return, or still worse, a couple of Vaughan centuries, might have necessitated an unpleasant phone call to a Durham number and a strange beeping sound from ECB headquarters as their entire one day strategy lurched into reverse.

But in the end, it was the rubber-limbed, Red Bull toting superhero who got the gig and who could begrudge him his opportunity? His candidacy was well supported in the media last year and over the last twelve months, he has been regular source of counsel for Collingwood. Above all, he was keen to take on the responsibility and a willing personality can take you a long way in English cricket. Indeed, in the absence of any serious alternative, KP has to be considered the heir apparent to the one-day captaincy for the foreseeable.

Of course, everyone was sure they knew exactly what sort of a captain he was going to be. In your face, loud, aggressive, like a pumped-up cross between Graeme Smith and Ian Botham, he was bound to approach captaincy in the same way that a bull goes about shopping for fine porcelain. The consensus of opinion was that he was about to take us on a four-match roller coaster in which pretty much anything could happen.

But it appears that there is more to captain Pietersen than that. The skipper who took the field at Lords' was, dare we say it, subdued, almost thoughtful. There were bouts of arm waving and gesticulation but mostly he exuded calm authority. In his field placing and bowling changes, he showed himself to be a thinker and his persistence with an attacking field was rewarded when McCullum was snared at slip in the nineteenth over. He made the odd mistake, most notably in letting Jacob Oram get a third over of Owais Shah's tempting off breaks. But it was a promising start.

And when you think about it, he has the advantage of having served under two of the sharpest captains of the modern era. His admiration for Michael Vaughan is well known, as is his friendship with the chubby blonde from Melbourne. Warne's captaincy, for Hampshire and Rajasthan Royals, has been spontaneous and instinctive, qualities that fit well with Pietersen's own character. If he can add to that the calm assurance and deft man management skills of his regular Test captain, KP could surprise those who assumed that there was little more to this brash superstar than big shots and bigger sponsorship deals.

Of course, on Saturday he also learnt a lesson that countless England captains before him have had to swallow. If your bowlers can't bowl straight and your batsmen keep playing silly shots, your job is basically to toss a coin and take the flak at the press conference afterwards.