English cricket is set to travel into a brave new world following the resignations of Michael Vaughan and Paul Collingwood, and then the appointment of tyro Kevin Pietersen as the next English captain over the three cricket formats.
The Vaughan era was one of sudden prosperity and sudden decline. Following every Englishman’s dream of retrieving the Ashes (Some of the younger generation had never seen it out of Australian hands before then) in 2005, England have grown steadily worse, with poor selections, lackluster performances and the declining quality in county cricket.
One of the major reasons for this decline was Vaughan’s knee injury, taking him out of action for a good 18 months and leaving England without his steely determination and sharp tactical brain. Andrew Flintoff did almost a parallel of Ian Botham during his captaincy reign, having little success. And there was Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss given a try as well.
Another key factor was the loss of Simon Jones, who seemed on the point of international explosion when he exposed flaws in the Australian batting lineup via his sharp reverse swing. He has not played a single international match since that Ashes series, and despite superb form this season, has not been reselected in the England team.
Gradually the English team lost its direction and its players performed erratically, even against weaker nations. Vaughan returned in late 2006, but was half the player he used to be. He re-inherited a team that was demoralized following an Ashes whitewash and they were soon beaten at home by India in 2007 and now South Africa in 2008. The guile of Vaughan had lost its aura.
To be fair to Vaughan, England has been woeful. With the exception of Kevin Pietersen, they have been found wanting against strong teams. Ian Bell, for example, who has a massive amount of talent, seems to go missing when the pressure is on, and he has never scored a century unless someone has got there before him.
Vaughan’s decline as a player has been sad to watch, as he is an extremely graceful batsman to watch when on song. The runs began to dry up as his injury prevented him from having the same command of his strokeplay, and the tricks began to dry up as his team began to falter against stronger opposition.
This may now change with KP’s appointment, one that has been met across the cricket world with equal parts skepticism and enthusiasm.
Logically KP was the only choice to replace Vaughan and Collingwood. He is the one batsman who is a certainty to play across all formats and he is the only player with a forceful enough personality to take on the job. While Strauss and Alastair Cook were considered, Cook is probably too young for the job and Strauss is no certainty over all the formats.
Pietersen is still under 30 and has proven himself unable to be intimidated by big name opponents such as South Africa and Australia. While we are yet to see if he has any tactical nous that is required when matching it with a Ponting or a Jayawardene, he certainly has the determination that made is previous skipper popular and respected.
His batting will hopefully be unaffected, and knowing Pietersen it may bring the best out in him. He has shown he can lift his game against the stronger opponents; hopefully he can inspire his more insipid teammates to do the same.
The first test is to see whether he can rally his troops to win the final test in order to win some pride back. Then comes a blitz of test series against India, the West Indies, Sri Lanka and finally Australia, only the Windies of those are considered a weaker team.
KP faces a tough trot in the battle to establish himself as England’s captain, and it will take his best to inspire his team to the kind of success that cemented Vaughan’s reputation as the most successful English skipper.
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