Ashes whitewash fear prompts England selectors to rest captain Andrew Strauss

By Derek Pringle 

The grim spectre of the Ashes whitewash three years ago is what has driven England's selectors to rest Andrew Strauss.

At home, Bangladesh will not be the walkover many assume, but England will see that as a small and justifiable risk to take if Strauss and his team defeat the Australians in 12 months' time.

The primacy of the Ashes is the motivating factor here. Last time England defended them in Australia, Andrew Flintoff was made captain ahead of Strauss with dreadful consequences.

Floored by the 5-0 drubbing, the England and Wales Cricket Board set up an inquiry, the Schofield report, whose main finding was that England's cricketers played too much cricket.

To remedy this, Schofield advocated fewer games: a suggestion ignored by the ECB, who have brazenly committed their players to more cricket.

To minimise burnout in their ever-expanding universe they need to rotate players, a system that appears to have begun with Strauss and James Anderson, who is being rested from the Bangladesh tour to cure a chronic knee problem.

The England captaincy is a gilded appointment and, predictably, some of those who have held its office have been critical of Strauss for abandoning his team. Michael Atherton, who captained England in 54 Tests, said that fatigue and dips in form come with the territory while Nasser Hussain said the job is meant to consume you 24/7, 12 months a year.

Players have always missed tours in the past but the last captain to do so was Ray Illingworth, who absented himself from the 1972/3 tour of India and Pakistan.

At the age of 40, Illingworth felt he needed a rest and to spend time with his two daughters, something Strauss, with two young children, will also feel under pressure to do. The selectors didn't hold it against Illingworth and he was brought back in as captain the next summer, beating New Zealand but losing to the West Indies.

So far so similar except that Illingworth reckoned his tour fee was less than he earned from his winter job. Strauss's central contract will ensure he will be handsomely remunerated while resting, yet more grist to the mills of those who think modern players are mollycoddled.

Great honour or not, the demands on captains such as Strauss are far greater than in Illy's day. Andy Flower, the team director, and Geoff Miller, the national selector, recognise the dangers of overload, which makes them far more enlightened than the selectors 40 years ago.

Back then there wasn't a tour of equivalent status to Bangladesh, which makes it the perfect opportunity to rest your most important player.

Indeed, you could spin it further by suggesting that Alastair Cook's appointment as captain for Bangladesh, far from preparing him to take over from Strauss, is actually helping to prolong his time at the helm.

Most recent captains reckon there is a four-year shelf life to the job. England's goal of being the No1 team in the world will take at least that long.

If the selectors see Strauss as the man to take them there, and to beat Australia away for the first time in 24 years, resting him now could prove a masterstroke.

Alastair Cook appointed England captain for Bangladesh tour

 
Cook steps up to let Andrew Strauss rest
James Anderson also omitted from February tour

• Rob Bagchi
• guardian.co.uk, Article history
• Alastair Cook, right, has been appointed to stand in for Andrew Strauss as England captain for the Bangladesh tour. Photograph: Paul Gilham/Getty Images
  
  Alastair Cook has been appointed to captain England on the tour to Bangladesh. The selectors have decided to rest Andrew Strauss from the tour and he will be replaced to lead both the Test and 50-overs sides by the current Test vice-captain, Cook. Paul Collingwood will continue as Twenty20 captain and lead the team in the two T20 internationals against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates which precede the tour of Bangladesh.
  
  Geoff Miller, the national selector, said: "Andrew Strauss has provided outstanding leadership for the team in both forms of the game over the past 12 months and the selectors feel it is important that he takes a break ahead of an extremely busy programme of international cricket leading up to and including the Ashes series in Australia and the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011.
  
  "Our decision to appoint Alastair Cook to the Test vice-captaincy last year clearly demonstrated the belief that he has the potential to be a future England captain. Alastair will now have an opportunity to develop his leadership skills still further by leading the side in both forms of cricket in Bangladesh and I know that he is excited by the challenge and looking forward to working closely with Andy Flower."
  
  James Anderson has also been rested from the tour in order to see a specialist and undertake a programme of rest and rehabilitation for his chronic right-knee injury. It is hoped that following the rehabilitation period, he will be fully fit and available for selection for the World T20 tournament in the Caribbean in late April.
  
  Two uncapped players, the Yorkshire pace bowler Ajmal Shahzad and the Kent off-spinner James Tredwell, have been named in both squads while another uncapped player, the Hampshire batsman Michael Carberry, has been included in the Test squad.
  
  "We are delighted to welcome Ajmal Shahzad to both squads for the first time," Miller siad. "He enjoyed an excellent season with Yorkshire last year, made a strong impression while he was in South Africa with the EPP squad and is a bowler with the potential to make a real impact in international cricket.
  
  "James Tredwell and Michael Carberry have also continued to impress the selectors over the course of the winter and we expect both players to make a strong challenge for inclusion in our starting line-up on the forthcoming tour."
  

  Test squad

  Alastair Cook (capt) (Essex), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Michael Carberry (Hampshire), Paul Collingwood (Durham), Steven Davies (Surrey), Graham Onions (Durham), Kevin Pietersen (Hampshire), Liam Plunkett (Durham), Matthew Prior (Sussex), Ajmal Shahzad (Yorkshire), Ryan Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire), Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire), James Tredwell (Kent), Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire), Luke Wright (Sussex).
  

  One-day squad

  Alastair Cook (capt) (Essex), Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Paul Collingwood (Durham), Joe Denly (Kent), Eoin Morgan (Middlesex), Matthew Prior (Sussex), Kevin Pietersen (Hampshire), Liam Plunkett (Durham), Ryan Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire), Ajmal Shahzad (Yorkshire), Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire), James Tredwell (Kent),Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire), Luke Wright (Sussex).
  

South Africa v England

Rob will be here from approximately 7.55am, so why not prepare for the day's play by reading Mike Selvey's report:

The rain came an hour after lunch, curtains of it, obscuring the stand at the Golf Course End of the Wanderers. Fifteen minutes later, as the thunder crashed overhead, the ground was awash, and the PA was playing John Fogerty's old hit Have You Ever Seen the Rain.

The draining qualities of the ground, together with miraculous work by the groundstaff, meant that rather than an abandonment for the day play was able to resume three hours and 20 minutes later, although to little avail as after just three and a half overs the light closed in and off they all trooped again. Worth waiting for. It saved England from further embarrassment and may yet contribute to a draw and hence a win in this series that the tourists scarcely deserve.

No wickets fell after the evening resumption and only two in the 49 overs possible before the storm, the second of them Graeme Smith, who edged Ryan Sidebottom's away swing into the midriff of Andrew Strauss at first slip even as the storm clouds gathered. By then, though, South Africa's captain had diligently collected the 20th Test hundred of his career over the course of four and a quarter hours, an inevitability almost to those who recognise a supreme competitor who saves his best for the toughest of times.