I have great respect for Warne as a cricketer, always thought he played the game hard but fair. I must say I am some what disappointed to read about his constant sniping at Cook's captaincy. Cook has an amazing record in his short term as captain,3 series wins,no defeats, series win in India. Warne rabbits on about the "negativity" of Cook's captaincy,unimaginative bowling changes/field places etc etc. If Cooks performances are "negative" that will do for me.
I agree with Warne. Cook isn't imaginative or aggressive enough with his field. Another problem with Cook is his very strange reluctancy to bowl part-timers. An example is in the game at Old Trafford Australia racked up 527 with only 4 overs from Root and 1 from Trott. This is despite Root taking 3 wickets for only 15 runs in the series prior to that match. The front-line seamers took 2-338 in that innings. So it was very poor captaincy not to bowl Root more in that innings and contributed massively to England being in such a poor position in the match. It was exactly the same captaincy style with Strauss though so it must have a lot to do with Flower. Warne is a perfectionist and has always been aggressive when setting fields for himself as a bowler or when a captain. So he isn't just whining for the sake of it. I can see where he's coming from completely.
Why can't we praise people when they are successful? We always have to pick up on the negatives? If you think Cook is poor,who is your call for captain?
Obviously are very good cricket players and obviously they like Cook as a person and are happy with him being captain. That doesn't mean he isn't a poor tactical captain though. I don't know the players well enough in terms of their knowledge of the game and personalities behind the scenes as people to know who the best captain would be. Generally the best captains aren't afraid of being unconventional with bowling changes and field settings. They aren't afraid of bowling part-timers. The problem with England is they have a group of very good cricketers but none of them are captaincy material. Cook doesn't even seem to understand the basics of captaincy based on the Old Trafford test and refusing to bowl part-timers. The only option that might be better in tests is Trott. The rest of them I imagine would be even more inept tactically. Just because the team won doesn't mean they are perfect. There need to improve if they are going to be the best.
Trott????????? as Mcenroe would say "You cannot be serious" There is no more tactically inept person in the squad. His whole game is built around himself and it has been successful for him and England.To push him forward as captain is laughable.
Tactically inept based on what? Oh that's right based on nothing at all. The reason he's also good shout is he's the most mature person in the side and the calmest head. The captain doesn't need to be changed anyway. I did say no one else could possibly be better and only said might about Trott. Implying I wouldn't force that change. **** me you are dumb. The team is winning. Warne was right to criticize Cook's captaincy. Get over it.
So much for constructive discussions, you now resort to insults. I was hoping for reasonable debate on different aspects of the game we all love,but perhaps that was not to be. If that's the way you like contributing I think you should stick to the football threads.
Shane Warne is entitled to his opinion and a very eloquent one it is too. I must admit I despair when anyone who says the slightest negative thing about any of our teams is castigated as being a whinger - we're the world leaders at it! Warne is paid to give his view so he will seek to stir up debate and i think he does have a point. I don't feel that cook has attained the same level of excellence in the team's play as strauss (who, unlike cook for now, had to compete aginst the oppostion and one of his own batsmen) did at our absolute peak in his tenure. Sometimes he seems to be more concerned about not losing the game rather than winning - that's entirely understandable but a bit more positivity and we'd have hammered the Aussies even more comprehensively. I do think that sometimes being more positive makes it a bit easier for the players as it's nicer to play like that and there's less pressure. Also i donlt think supporters mind when palyers lose a game beacuse they went out so hard to win rather tahn scrape a draw as you know that the results will eventually happen. The bottom line of course is that, as you have already pointed out, cook's record speaks for itself. That doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement and that is what i think warne was saying.
