The World Cup: one-day cricket's hour in the sun

Would Brearley have picked Cook as captain?

England cricket

A multitude of issues for England

The England selectors will sit down on Friday to pick the World Cup squad with questions still hanging over the head of captain Alastair Cook. In the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain says it is not too late for England to make a change - a change he believes should have been made months ago - but the captain is not the only concern. He does not see the return of Stuart Broad and James Anderson as a quick fix for the bowler attack and still thinks England base their one-day cricket too much on Test match ideals.

When I helped compile the Schofield Report seven years ago, we were saying one-day cricket should be treated just as seriously as Test cricket and I see that Paul Downton was saying the same thing this week. Well, if England really mean it this time then they have to put faith in the younger, more dynamic batsmen who have grown up with Twenty20.

A Test match for the ages

Misbah, the unobtrusive hero

Misbah's place in Pakistan history

Spinners need intelligent, trusting captains to thrive

English cricket

Cook's boys are all right

Criticism has been as regular as breakfast for Alastair Cook. He saved himself from becoming an "untenable" option as Test captain but the focus has now shifted to his one-day capabilities. With former players questioning if England have the composition to win a World Cup, Stephen Brenkley, in the Independent comes to the support of the embattled England captain

Cook's batting strike rate as captain is 81.89 runs per 100 balls, acceptable even by the era's standards. There seems to be a desire outside the selection room to pack the team with sluggers on the grounds that one or two are bound to come off. England may actually have it right as long as the totals to which they aspire are based on conditions on the day, not some statistical database. The plan is to backload the innings after a solid start with Joe Root, Morgan and Jos Buttler all scoring at a lick

Is Pakistan's slow approach now holding them back?

How exactly does one 'lead by example'?

Why we need Cook to succeed

Cook's Brearley lesson

The geometry of captaincy

Are you born to captain?

England cricket

Tend to Cook the batsman, before Cook the captain

England's hopes of a new era were struck down in Headingley by a young and hungry Sri Lanka. As much praise as Angelo Mathews and his side deserves, the hosts did not do themselves justice both in terms of the cricket they played and the tactics they used. Mike Selvey, in the Guardian, casts the magnifying glass on the captain Alastair Cook and suggests he might be trying too hard to change himself and the process if proving to be detrimental.

If Cook were to score runs in the kind of quantity he once managed, then that would underpin the innings, with others feeding from it, and leadership would seem easier. It does appear, however, that he might be placing too much emphasis on being in the vanguard, perhaps trying to be something he is not, rather than being a little more selfish in that regard and thinking primarily about his own game. The point has not yet been reached where either Cook or his employer should be considering whether his position as Test captain is appropriate for both the team benefit and his own but it will be under discussion.

Australia's rise and the climb ahead

Indian cricket

Wadekar's shoes and a Karnataka triumph

In the Telegraph, historian Ramachandra Guha reminisces about Karnataka's semi-final against Bombay in March 1974, en route to their first Ranji Trophy title. Guha writes that Karnataka beat Bombay in that game (on first-innings basis) due to two human errors - the first an umpiring decision that went in favour of Gundappa Viswanath off the first ball he faced; and Ajit Wadekar's slip, which resulted in his run-out and allowed Karnataka to take a lead.

Some 20 years after I watched Karnataka defeat Bombay for the first time, I met Ajit Wadekar at a reception in New Delhi. I reminded him about the match and how he had got out, adding that had he not slipped he would still be batting at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. His answer, offered with a laconic shrug of the shoulders, was: "New shoes."

The Tendulkar-Brearley conundrum

The what-ifs of Wasim Akram's captaincy