England v Saffers

[livvy145]

Pietersen named England captain


Kevin Pietersen has succeeded Michael Vaughan as England captain.

Following Vaughan's shock resignation on Sunday, the 28-year-old's appointment was confirmed by national selector Geoff Miller at Lord's.

Pietersen will captain both the Test and one-day sides and will lead England in the final Test against South Africa at The Oval on Thursday.

Pietersen said at the news conference: "I will give it the best go I can give it."

[SouthAfricaRed]

Agreed...but i worry that it will temper his natural attacking game, and KP is not a player to just sit and defend ball after ball.

But i did like in the one dayers how he let the bowlers set the field to their liking, with minimal interference. Something Vaughan didn't like to do, often to the bowlers frustrations.

I've been thinking about the role of a captain in cricket.

Can we do without one?

Cant the bowlers set their own fields and the management decide bowling and batting order?

[dww]

Pietersen named England captain

Bugger!

[dww]

I've been thinking about the role of a captain in cricket.

Can we do without one?

Cant the bowlers set their own fields and the management decide bowling and batting order?

It's an interesting proposition. I would think that there is a benefit of having a co-ordinated strategy when bowling etc though and possibly many bowlers aren't that great at field setting. On the other hand at times Vaughn seemed to set fields bowlers weren't comfortable with and I would say that possibly a captain should mediate ideas between players as much as impose his own.

[Red Chilli]

Bugger!

Another **** decision by the management, but then they had no real obvious option.

Glad to see Bopara back, get Broad in too

[wiw]

SSN said they can't train today due to bad weather, and the indoors area being occupied by a conference. Jesus christ

[Shaggy]

Harmison and Broad back in!


Pacemen Steve Harmison and Stuart Broad have been recalled to the England side for the final Test against South Africa at The Oval, starting on Thursday.

Ryan Sidebottom and Ravi Bopara have been left out as England seek to restore pride in Kevin Pietersen's first match as Test captain.

England will play five batsmen with Ian Bell replacing former skipper Michael Vaughan at number three.

Andrew Flintoff will bat at six and wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose at seven.

Pietersen explained his vision for the side and said: "I had a good discussion with the guys and one of the key factors was about playing with passion and pride, as if it's your last Test.

"I want them to come off at the end of the day having given their all for England, to try and put smiles on the faces of people in this wonderful country."

The new captain said the bold move to maximise the chances of taking 20 wickets, something England were unable to do in the first two matches.

"I've given the responsibility to batters to score runs," he said. "Freddie I've spoken to at great lengths and he is happy to bat at six and Ian Bell wants the responsibility at three."

Of Harmison's return he said: "I've had a real good relationship with Steve since I came into the England side. I said to him 'You're playing for England' and he seems as excited as anything."

England slumped to a series defeat with a five-wicket loss at Edgbaston.

All-rounder Flintoff is keen to end a run of eight England Test defeats in his last eight appearances when the final Test of the series with South Africa starts.

He returned from ankle surgery to play in the England team beaten by South Africa at Headingley and Edgbaston.

His last previous home appearance was in a 2006 loss to Sri Lanka, and he led the side beaten 5-0 in Australia.

He said: "Two defeats is not the way I envisaged coming back with England. I didn't wait 18 months to get beaten."

Flintoff played as one of five bowlers at Headingley, and one of just four at Edgbaston, but on both occasions England were unable to translate his personal effort into team wins.

Batting at seven, he has scored 17, 38, 36 not out and 0, and a total return of seven wickets included a terrific innings haul of 4-89 at Edgbaston.

But he says now is the time for him to start "performing properly".

"It wasn't ideal but in a perverse way the first one at Headingley I enjoyed, in the sense of being back around the lads, playing in front of a big crowd and playing for England," he said.

606: DEBATE
England lost the series against South Africa in the first innings at Headingley and the first innings at Edgbaston - not scoring enough runs

G_STYLE

On paper, England have little to play for other than a morale-boosting end to a series that has degenerated into an alarming collapse.

South Africa were on the brink of defeat after three days at Lord's, but turned that into a draw - and then handed England two devastating defeats, the last of which pushed Michael Vaughan into resigning as captain.

Flintoff said: "It is not a dead rubber. Maybe it is in the context of the series, but we are playing for England and we are certainly playing for pride."



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England: Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen (captain), Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Tim Ambrose (wkt), Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Steve Harmison, Monty Panesar.

South Africa (probable): Graeme Smith (captain), Neil McKenzie, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, Ashwell Prince, AB de Villiers, Mark Boucher (wkt), Morne Morkel, Paul Harris, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini.

[Jayesh87]

I like the way Smith dodged the KP being a SA and captain of Eng question.

England need super Jon Lewis

[dww]

I found the bit at the bottom of this interesting - especially the fact that Key was second choice for captain. I wish we had given it to him actually.

Pietersen will bring a new style of leadership

* Jonathan Agnew
* 5 Aug 08, 08:42 AM

For all the debate about the appointment of Kevin Pietersen as England captain, we can be sure of one thing: that his outgoing manner and style of leadership will be very different from the more reserved and thoughtful Michael Vaughan.

That is no bad thing at all - in fact, merely a change of style can have an immediate positive effect which the team certainly needs, and the other players will certainly rally round in support.

Let's face it, it is hardly in their interests not to be seen to be backing the new captain who will have his own ideas, and a honeymoon period in which to make changes...

Up until now, we have never really seen Pietersen under pressure because his ability as a batsman merely soaks it up.

Kevin Pietersen at the Lord's news conference

He never looks as if he is struggling when in the middle.

But captaincy is very different - especially when the ball is flying all over the place in the field, or a stubborn partnership is threatening to take the game away from you.

That is when the we will see Pietersen , the captain, either remain cool, calm and display imagination and leadership, or lose his head completely.

Because he has had virtually no captaincy experience at all, it is impossible to predict which we will get.

Pietersen's appointment brings the role of coach Peter Moores sharply into focus.

Up to now, he has had the strong, and senior figure of Vaughan in front of him.

Moores is now, effectively the senior figure and it appears to be an open secret that Moores and Pietersen (and some other senior players) have not been seeing eye to eye.

Indeed, there was a meeting on Sunday between Moores and Pietersen which appears to have been held to clear the air between the two.

Moores now has no hiding place - his honeymoon period is over, and I suggest that he has until the end of next summer to prove his worth as coach.

From what I can gather, the selectors had no idea that Paul Collingwood had resigned as one day captain until they met to discuss Vaughan's replacement on Sunday morning (although we were told that he had resigned on Thursday evening)

That gave them the opportunity to unify the role, something national selector Geoff Miller was keen to do.

I gather that Rob Key was the second choice because there was no way of accommodating Andrew Strauss in the one day set-up.

[Matt]

How could someone who's not played a Test or ODI for years even be considered as captain?!

[dww]

How could someone who's not played a Test or ODI for years even be considered as captain?!

It is a bit odd but then is it any stranger than appointing someone with no captaincy experience and shows no aptitude for the subtler points of the game.

[Matt]

It is a bit odd but then is it any stranger than appointing someone with no captaincy experience and shows no aptitude for the subtler points of the game.

But Vaughan has never been Yorkshire's captain, Hussain only captained Essex for a season and before him Mike Atherton hadn't captained Lancashire either.

Yes Pietersen occasionally does the wrong thing but there have also been instances where he's knuckled down for the team and played very conservative innings. The fact is he generally plays better when he's aggressive and lets face it, there isn't much aggression anywhere else in the batting order.

I think he'll make a decent job of it.

[Matt]

By the way I used Wiki to research the previous England captains, I'm not that big a cricket geek that I'd have information like that to hand

[Shaggy]

By the way I used Wiki to research the previous England captains, I'm not that big a cricket geek that I'd have information like that to hand

I did wonder.

[Scratch]

KP's era begins with a dropped catch of the very first ball...i do hope that's not a nasty omen for the rest of his captaincy to come.

C'mon Harmy!!!!