What Is Going On In The ECB?

Well it is really interesting at times and somewhat confusing at other times regarding the politics that is found to be going on in the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB). First of those being that the then England skipper Kevin Pietersen was not happy with the selectors excluding the former England captain Michael Vaughan for the one day series against the West Indies. Than comes in the news that Pietersen does not have the patience or has lost patience with the then coach Peter Moores. The reason of the same yet to be disclosed. It was like the Indian team that returned successfully after failing to make it to the super eights of the ICC world cup 2007 in the Caribbean and cites the cause for the same to be the then coach Greg Chappell.

Now, even the present England team is found to do the same. And if the recent newspapers are to be believed, it was said that Kevin Pietersen wanted to resign from the captaincy during the first test against India in Mohali itself. One has to wonder really as to why this took such a long time to come to light. And was Kevin Pietersen aware that the ECB would drop or not include the former captain Michael Vaughan for the tour of the West Indies? If this is true, how great it is. Well, was this the reason as to why the England team failed to win the Chennai test despite putting up a mammoth total of 387 on the board for India to chase on the fifth day, which India did with ease?

And, days later after the exclusion of Vaughan, Kevin Pietersen wants the coach Peter Moores to be sacked. I wonder as to whether Moores is the coach of the England team or a member of ECBs selection panel? What has Peter Moores got to do with the exclusion of Michael Vaughan? May be, who knows! For, some say that it was the then India coach Greg Chappell who was responsible for Sourav Ganguly's sacking for the games against Sri Lanka in 2005. And why shouldn't this be another such issue? It would be interesting to wait and watch out for what all is yet to come out.

As a protest, Kevin Pietersen resigns from captaincy and even threats to quit from the squad if Vaughan doesn't be included and Peter Moores sacked. In response, the ECB selects Andrew Struass as the new captain for the England team that would tour the West Indies and then for the upcoming Ashes this summer. Finally, the ECB sacks the coach Peter Moores too. But, Kevin Pietersen is still not happy with the ECB. Vaughan is to be back for playing in the Ashes. Still Kevin Pietersen is not convinced! Either the coach should have been retained or, the coach sacked and Pietersen retained as the England captain. How come both happenning? Like KP not satisfied with coach Peter Moores, is the ECB too dissatisfied with Kevin Pietersen as the captain? If his birth place (RSA) and his success as captain goes by, even this cannot be ruled out.

Captaincy- A Batsman's Right?

The last night's decision by the ECB to appoint Andrew Strauss as the captain for the upcoming series against the West Indies raised some questions as to whether captaincy is the job of the batsmen and rarely do bowlers are offered the job?This not only being the case regarding England team. But, a little bit of glance would reveal that if not for the New Zealand team, every other cricketing nation has elected a batsman as its skipper. The reason regarding the same is yet to be disclosed. Does anyone out thre know the funda of a batsman-captain relationship? If so, please tell me.

For, it has not been able for me to know as to what makes the selectors go in for batsmen when it come to selecting a captain for its side. For a team India, the present captain in M S Dhoni bats in addition to keeping wickets. And before Dhoni, it was handled by batsmen like Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Mohd Azharuddin. Very rarely has there been a captain who is a bowler rather than a batsman. The rare exception being that of Anil Kumble, who was made India's test captain at the fag end of his cricketing career. Neither was Javagal Srinath nor Venkatesh Prasad were given the job despite being at the top of the bowling in their playing days.

And, for the West Indies, after Courtney Walsh retired after the 1999 world cup, the captains have been Jimmy Adams, Carl Hooper, Brian Lara and Chris Gayle off late. For Australia, fellow legends- Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath were never offerred the job whatsoever. The predecessors for Ponting have been batsmen in Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and Allan Border, with Adam Gilchrist & Ian Healy doing the job in their absense. For Pakistan, the last five captains have been Shoaib mailk (present), Inzamam Ul Haq, Moin Khan, Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram. In this case, the two of them being bowlers.

For Sri Lanka, match winners in Mutiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vass were never ever offerred the job. Its been Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Attapattu, Mahela Jayawardane who took over the team's responsibility after another batsman Arjuna Ranatunga called it a day. The last bowler to captain England was, I guess was Dominic Cork, with no idea as to how long he continued. Then, it was Alec Stewart, Nasser Hussain, Michael Vaughan and now Andrew Strauss. At present the only bowler who is found captaining his side is Daniel Vettori, who took over from fellow batsmen Stephen Fleming, Adam Parore and Lee Germon (1996).

Last but not the least we have South Africa, who have elected a batsmen in Greame Smith, after Pollock failed to move to the super sixes of the ICC world cup in 2003. Before that it was Hansie Cronje, who was precedeed by Kepler Wessels and Peter Kirsten. Never mind that the aforementioned players have done justice to their role, but, miking bowlers take on their side would surely persuade youngsters to take up the job of bowling, which is ever diminishing day to day, with ICC bringing new rules every now and then to make batsmen's life easy.