Strauss resigns as England captain - Cook named as successor

[Sedition]

This all feels a bit too scripted for my liking. Wouldn't be surprised to see Strauss and KP return to South Africa for their upcoming series against us in November.

 

[cricket_icon]

I don't see the harm in sticking in Root now. So what if he has a tough few years to start. He'll only be 24-25 and will have 10 years or so to make his mark!

Yeah, I've heard Root mentioned as replacement, Carberry and Compton have also been mentioned. If England are going to go for a new opener, rather than move Trott up to the top spot, I'd go with Root, like you said he is only 21. Carberry and Compton just aren't long term options.

Personally I'd move Trott up to open, adding in an extra slot for a middle order batsman. Maybe Bairstow and Bopara could both play in the same team one day.

 

[War]

I don't see why Compton or Carberry can't be long term options.

Not trying to sound racial here, but i'd love to see Carberry be the replacement for Strauss. It's been a while since a British born black person, instead of west indian/african migrant, played cricket for England.

 

[barmyarmy]

How can a 31 year old be a long-term option?

 

[MUFC1987]

Why do we need a 'long term option'?

We play the Ashes twice within the next couple of years. It's more important to have the best player in the team, rather than one who might be good in 5 years time.

 

[Owzat]

Going back to the earlier points, I don't see why he'd want to go back and play county cricket. Will he ever get the same buzz as he did with England, has he got anything else to achieve that would compare with what he's done?

I don't buy that, not at any price. It's called form for a reason, he's been out of it for two years yet suddenly on the immediate back of the KP test affair he jacks it ALL in and Flower is round sniffing around KP to get him back.

It may be a long culmination of form and other factors, maybe even for his family, but that KP affair played its part, of that I have no doubt whatsoever - and I rarely commit fully to a view like that.

He could have gone back to the county circuit, but he'd know KP had "won". I doubt he took the decision lightly, I doubt KP wouldn't have been among his thoughts when making it.

And who knows exactly what has been said behind the scenes, he must certainly have discussed various issues with the selectors and Flower, I doubt very much he'd have liked some of the things said. I could even see a scenario where he said he wouldn't have KP back under any circumstances, and was told in no uncertain terms that KP was likely to be called up sooner or later. If someone's authority were undermined, their form not great and they got very angry about it, the likeliest course of action would be something like quitting.

There is plenty England haven't achieved, probably no cricketer dead or alive has achieved everything there is to achieve. Has Strauss...........

Won the World Cup?
Won all possible titles with Middlesex?
Won in India with England?
Scored hundreds against all counties?
Scored hundreds against all Test nations?
Scored a triple hundred?

I could continue, there is no such thing as "achieved everything there is to achieve" unless you partake in an activity where there isn't a great deal to achieve. There are way too many stations sitting in middle ground that Strauss could have got off at, simply stepping down as captain and finding form at Middlesex being the obvious one, retiring from Internationals is another.

More to it than we know, of that I can have zero doubt. He may come to regret quitting cricket, he may even do a KP and reverse it quickly (if he has any sense) He could take a year out, of course his more pressing family issue may well be what he will do when he is too old to make a living from playing cricket..................................

 

[MUFC1987]

So you're essentially making up a load of BS just to support your argument and trying to pass it off as Fact? Nice. We could all do that.

Strauss has achieved pretty much everything in the game in terms of Test match cricket though. And I don't see why you think he should go back to Middlesex to play. He's what, 34? He's not going to get back into the Test side, even if he wanted to, so why bother with County Cricket? Middlesex have some good young players opening in FC cricket anyway, so I expect he'd have no desire to push one of those out, without talking about the difference between batting in front of 20,000 at Lord's compared to the few hundred that Middlesex probably get at the same venue.

He's earned enough money that he doesn't *need* to play cricket to have a comfortable life. Why go out in some County Game rather than the last game being his 100th Test match and 50th match as Captain? You can try to look for excuses to do with KP all you like, but he had nothing to do with it. It's not like Strauss is suddenly going from looking forward to continuing his career, to retiring within that small window of time since the KP situation blew up. And if you think he has, then you're crazy.

 

[puddleduck]

Opinion as fact. Surely you could have found some unrelated numbers to really hammer home your point?

 

[sifter132]

Strauss has achieved pretty much everything in the game in terms of Test match cricket though. And I don't see why you think he should go back to Middlesex to play. He's what, 34? He's not going to get back into the Test side, even if he wanted to, so why bother with County Cricket?

It used to be the way to retire, go back to the county circuit and play for a couple of years. I'm thinking randomly off the top of my head here in Australia of Allan Border who retired from Test cricket (after playing the most Tests ever), but still went back and played for Queensland for a couple of seasons. Guys like Justin Langer did that as well, heck we've got Shane Warne (and any number of guys: Gilchrist, Hayden etc.) playing on but in a different format. Most of the motivation seems to be that continually being on tour on the Test cricket circuit is pretty draining, but playing domestically is only half the work load, and you can do it in your home country. If you still love cricket, domestic cricket is much easier to do.

There's also the argument that it strengthens the county game by having Strauss join Middlesex ie. raising the quality. It helps the young guys in his team to see a seasoned international player up close blah blah. The counter argument of course is that Strauss would be taking the spot of a younger player.

Why do we need a 'long term option'?

We play the Ashes twice within the next couple of years. It's more important to have the best player in the team, rather than one who might be good in 5 years time.

Hear hear brother. Why is there this obsession with picking kids under 25? If a kid is very talented, then sure, give him a taste of the big time and see what he can do. But if you are picking him just for the sake of his age alone it seems particularly silly. There's this obsession with developing 15 year batsmen. Very rarely do those guys come along and if there's no obvious candidate...that's right, I don't think Joe Root is going to be a superstar...then pick your best 30 year old. He'll still give you 5-7 years of good service with bat.