Atherton's new role in team management exercise

When he last pulled into South Africa, Mike Atherton was the skipper of all he surveyed with the poker-faced Ray Illingworth as the England henchman as well as hatchman, and there was no committee to run the rest of the team's business.

Now the roles have been switched and for this tour and the former captain courageous has become `captain of the committee of four' to handle the winges and other moans as well as what other problems the touring Poms are likely to run into during the 15 weeks they are in this country.

The new responsibility possibly has more to do with Atherton's off-field stoic charm than his batting abilities to shore up the side's crumbling defences. Not given to the sort of extrovert emotions of some of the lesser members of this particular squad, the grin and bare it characteristics makes him ideal for the new role as Team England's ``Dear, Aunt Maude . . . ''

Whether this will be checking on trouble spots in the side and smoothing the path for a sort of uneasy truce between the skipper, Nasser Hussain and coach, Duncan Fletcher, and the remainder of the side is uncertain. The inference is there though.

What comes as a surprise is the names of the other members of the committee: Mark Butcher, Darren Gough and . . .Phil Tuffnell. Okay, so Butcher, most likely to partner Atherton in the opening slot during the Test series, and a former captain has some sort of qualification to lend his ear to the wails of other team members, and the irrepressible Goughie as well. But Tuffnell . . .

Like Mark Ramprakash the left-arm spinner is not seen as the sort of guy on whom to vent emotions; a bit of a stirrer and who would prefer to have a fag and a pint with the boys and air his own grievances than hear those of others. He has had enough brushes with the long arm of the establishment at Lord's and just about any place else he has found himself.

He was once even described as the ``sort of disreputable soccer-style hooligan England do not need on any tour . . '' One of the flannelled fools if not muddied oafs of the game.

Character assassinations have not disturbed the irascible Tuffnell and other touring teams have had just as disreputable types in their side. There are a couple of Aussies and Indians who can also be labelled with the same tag.

Perhaps it was a smart ploy by the establishment, with Tuffnell selected for this tour, to throw him into the ``odd assortment committee'' to sort out himself and brush up his tardy image as ``one of the lads''.

Bring him into line as it were with the others; stamping giving him a touch of responsibility to add to his flair as a player.

It is an interesting experiment in team synergy and one, with Atherton at the helm, which could do more to ease Hussain and Fletcher's state of mind as they concentrate their energies of rebuilding Team England. Well, that's the general idea.