(This Have Your Say was updated after Kevin Pietersen’s appointment) Kevin Pietersen has been named as Michael Vaughan’s replacement as England cricket captain.Vaughan, England’s most successful cricket captain, stepped down after a series of disappointing performances at the crease and the loss of the current Test series to South Africa.Dubbed “Me Ego” by the South Africans for his flamboyant style of playing, do you think Pietersen is the man to take England on to regain the Ashes next year? Can he put the interests of the team ahead of his own indomitable style?The South African-born player has negligible captaining experience.Have Alastair Cook, for example, Andrew Strauss, Freddie Flintoff and Robert Key been unfairly overlooked?And should Vaughan have walked so soon?
UK News
Insights from the UK and beyond
Is Pietersen the man for the Ashes?
Posted by: Stephen Addison
TrackbackPost Your Comment
House Rules:
- We moderate all comments and will publish everything that advances the post directly or with relevant tangential information
- We try not to publish comments that we think are offensive or appear to pass you off as another person, and we will be conservative if comments may be considered libelous information.
11 comments so far
Pieterson is a fine batsman but doesn’t strike me as captain material.
Unfortunately I don’t rate any of the current crop as having the necessary qualities so I will be interested to see the final choice.I really think Vaughn went to soon,sadly
- Posted by L.HarrisonIt seems to me that the England squad appear to be a bit of a closed shop. We should be selecting players on form, if you look at this England squad, and their county averages, not many would be selected. A number of overlooked players could easily be selected for England on current form, Worcestershires Kabir Ali, on the bowling side, and Robert Key, for his batting, and astute leadership qualities, to name just two.
- Posted by B HunterSorry , forgot to add that i dont think KP is the right man for the captaincy. He is a terrific batsman, no doubt, but i fear that the captaincy will effect his batting, much in the same way as Ian Botham suffered when he was skipper. Has he also got the nous, and leadership skills, perhaps, but not at this moment. The captaincy will depend on who is going to be selected, especially for the long term. For me, there is not an outstanding candidate, at least not in this current squad.
- Posted by B HunterDo we want KP as captain of England? It will be interesting to see how the ECB responds. A few points they would want to consider 1. KP is not English by birth. This might be alright in multi-cultural England but will England make the Pakistani bowler who gained British citizenship to play for England and eventually become captain? 2. How much experience does he have in international cricket to warrant the job 3. Does England want their team to be as arrogant as KP is?
KPs selection would mean a yes to all the above questions. Finally we should all remember that KP is a discard and making him captain of the English team will be really sad.
- Posted by R GosainIt really is a simple question to answer, being a captain is a very specialised job, we wouldnt pick a batsman, bowler or wicket keeper with no experience of doing the job, so why a captain, I say get Rob Key in, doing a great job at Kent, and has the authority that maybe this England squad needs to begin fulfilling its potential, or are we just simply not as good as we think we are!!
- Posted by a hillierGreat batsman, great competitor, won’t take a backward step, however should he have been burdened with the captaincy when we are so relient on his runs? Will he get the sack after we get stuffed in next year’s Ashes? These are worrying times!
- Posted by The Village CricketerFollowing Vaughan (arguably England’s most successful captain ever) will be a tough job.
The problem is that Pietersen will be compared to Vaughan from the off and is unlikely to be as good in terms of captaincy.
Yes - his batting will also probably suffer (as it seems to do with most people, perhaps Ponting the exception).
Also - I think it is likely that Vaughan will get himself back into the England team next summer (assuming the pressure lifting revives his fortunes) and then Pietersen could feel all sorts of pressures if things aren’t going to plan.
Still I suppose someone has to do it, and the best player seems as good a choice as any.
- Posted by GrantThe glaringly obviously thing about the England side is that they live in the past, they’re still harping on about the Ashes series they won and that was several years (and a series) ago now.
When they were in trouble in this series against South Africa instead of trying new blood they went old school again and recalled ye olde players in Collingwood and Freddy and I’m afraid appointing KP as captain now is continuing this trend.
Whilst he may be young and inexperienced Alistair Cook has shown promise as a long term English leader and is just the type of good role model for young cricketers to look up to. He would have gotten my vote as capt’n.
- Posted by LarissaI am amazed that Vaughan was not persuaded by the powers to stay on and rather encouraged to resign.He is an outstanding captain.Whats wrong with Andrew Flintoff.He is outstanding captaincy material.
- Posted by yunis khanAs Frazer pointed out Kevin P is just tolerated by the England squad when Vaughan was respected and held in some affection.
Definately KP is captian material. He had that skills and killer instincts usually australians have.
- Posted by MudassirEngland will become super power in cricket and regain its predominancy in near future under piet captiancey.
Once again the theory that your best player does not necessarily make an ideal captain has proved true!
- Posted by Cricket Bats