Who has Been The Worst Captain Of The England Cricket Team? >

[Ernest]

Well who is he, who has the worst record captaining England, could be in terms of results, or the way he let the games drift, Only England captains please!.

[Rachael]

Originally Posted by Ernest

Well who is he, who has the worst record captaining England, could be in terms of results, or the way he let the games drift, Only England captains please!.

In terms of impact on recent sides then Gooch HAS to head this list: drove the most talented player of his generation out of the side, set in place a regime in which talents like Tuffers and characters like Ramps would never flourish.. and was appallingly inarticulate to camera.

Runner up, from the modern era, has to be Stewart: obsessed with "character" (as if that was what cricket was all about).. obsessed with the idea of pride and the lions on his chest... seemingly more concerned with appearances than strategy... fuller of cliches than ANY football manager... and as wooden as can be to camera. Singularly unimaginative.

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by Rachael

Runner up, from the modern era, has to be Stewart: obsessed with "character" (as if that was what cricket was all about).. obsessed with the idea of pride and the lions on his chest... seemingly more concerned with appearances than strategy... fuller of cliches than ANY football manager... and as wooden as can be to camera. Singularly unimaginative.

I agree over Gooch, I liked his play, but he was not what a captain should be made of.

Runner up, this won't be popular, it has to be David Gower, I know he was a great player, and I know he was s*** on by the likes of Gooch, and the England selectors, but having said that, he was by far to laid back.

LOL your comments about Stewart, really funny, just like a post of Oliver the other day or so.

Ern

[yubeingfunny]

yep Gooch is my vote too, was tempted to put beefy up there as he was truly poor and equally as unflexible as gooch but his defeats tended to be against "better" teams eg windies and he was often forced to take it upon himself to try and singlehandedly take on the opposition and just as Lara/Tendulkar have shown in recent years that just isnt possible and doesnt make you a good captain

Gooch may have been more successful than Botham but he did a really awful job of handling the more "difficult" players ie. anyone who didnt conform to what Gooch thought a professional cricketer should act like, the removal of Gower seems to be based purely on the fact that Gooch a) didnt like him and/or b) may have been jealous of the fact that Gower made things look so very easy wheras gooch was a true grafter

either way it was a travesty and well worth the title of worst captain

[Chuck Palumbo]

But Stewart did guide us to our last 5 test match series victory against a very good SA side and also led us to a famous victory at the MCG.

[Ernest]

Yes YBF, Botham was not the best of captains, but what a twist of fate when he went, I think he resigned after ONLY making a draw at lords against Australia "ONLY", anyway Mike Breirley took over as captain, and we all know what happened next Test at headingly.

Ern

[Kirsty Harris]

The critism of Gooch seems a little unfair to me. Yes, he did not manage certain players well, but it didn't help that the people he was working with (Illingworth et al) were unsupportive.

He had many good skills as a Captin, and got the best out of many players. He was an inspiration also, leading from the front on many occassions. He also started the move towards improving the fitness levels of players. He made the side more professional. And remember, he took a rag-bag assortment of untried and untested players to the WI after the Ashes mauling in 1989, and only bad luck and bad weather stopped him pulling off a great series win.

Not the greatest Captin, no - but not that bad either.

As usual on this front, I'd go for Bothem - should never have been made Captin, so it's not really his fault. But he didn't really get anything right in his short period as Captin. At least Stewart managed to win a significant series (agianst SA) even if it was more by luck than judgement!!

[Andy Mellon]

I agree with Kirsty on this. Gooch may not have been a good man-manager, but he wasn't the worst captain - he never looked completely lost on the field or was arrogant enough to deliberately go out of him way to spite his own players. How's about Athers declaring with Hick on 98*? Now, how would he have felt if someone had done that to him? Athers and Gooch had the same level of players in their respective teams - i.e. neither had a particularly good team, but Gooch did a little bit better than Athers. In fact, I have to say I watched the England cricket team lose for at least 2 years and after every loss I found myself wishing that Athers would take the opportunity to fall on his sword... he never did, did he?

Athers, for sure!

(Edit) Actually, Chris Cowdrey's gotta be in with a shot too!

[Ernest]

Atherton is a strange one to say worst captain, he was not that good, but he was thrown in the job.

If you remember he had only played a handfull og games for England, and the talk was he was being groomed to be Englands captain, he was given the job far to soon, thats why he dont get my vote.

[Kirsty Harris]

Originally Posted by Ernest

Atherton is a strange one to say worst captain, he was not that good, but he was thrown in the job.

If you remember he had only played a handfull og games for England, and the talk was he was being groomed to be Englands captain, he was given the job far to soon, thats why he dont get my vote.

Atherton was made Captin largly due to the lack of other viable options at the time. Yes, he was young. Would it have made a difference had he have been older? I don't know...

I think he had his faults in his management of players, like Gooch - but as Andy rightly said, he did on occassion let personel feelings colour his judgement when it came to players (like Hick). Gooch might not have handled all players as well as he could have, but it wasn't out of spite.

That isn't to say I'd consider him a truely bad captin. He had a generally medicore squad to choose from - worse than Gooch, even, I'd say. He fought hard, and I think his determination was admirable. Not many of people could have withstood the crap hurled at him. I have to admit, inspite of his generally unimpressive results, I've got a bit of a soft spot for Athers - the first game of cricket I saw was his test debut against Austrailia in 1989, and when he retired I did shed a little tear!!

To be honest, I think if we were to look at most England Captins, we could pick faults with them all! But I also think most have had at least SOME good qualities.