Would Brearley have picked Cook as captain?

If the Twitter mob ran the board of selectors, Alastair Cook would be dropped and Eoin Morgan installed as the new England captain.

But the online revolution has yet to overrule five men around a table. Between now and Saturday, one would hope that the selectors, Peter Moores, Angus Fraser, Mick Newell and James Whitaker are considering all options. While the ECB managing director Paul "I had to Google him - KP" Downton says he would be "surprised" if Cook wasn't at the helm for the World Cup, coach Moores declared that no one was "unsackable".

Common sense, and just about every living England captain, agree Cook must go. And regrettably - how rare it must be for such a likeable character to receive so many calls to quit. We admire his gritty determination to carry on, in the same way we admire the hardy skipper who ties himself to the wheel of a sinking ship. But when there might be another captain at hand with a chart to navigate us through that treacherous reef system, it's time for Cook to walk the plank - whether at the sharp end of Moore's sword, or indeed falling on his very own.

However, he's not going without a fight. Before the final loss of the Sri Lanka series he vowed to remain captain. Then, after the crunching in Colombo, he finally offered an admission that he might not keep the job for the World Cup.

And if Cook did go, who would step into the breach? The realistic candidates are Morgan, Stuart Broad and Joe Root. Rather than enter the anodyne mind of an England selector, I prefer to consider what master captain Mike Brearley would decide.

Firstly, I wonder if Brearley would have selected Cook in the first place. In chapter two of his peerless The Art of Captaincy, Brearley focuses on "Class and charisma: choosing a captain". He opens with the analogy of an ailing county side calling in a management company that specialises in revitalising failing prospects, and comes to the "not very novel point" that headhunters must consider both playing skills and leadership ability.

They must also consider that ephemeral and mysterious quality: charisma. We know who has it, and who doesn't. The etymology of charisma infers an individual who has been blessed by the grace of God - this is not a quality you can pick up in a handbook, or an England training session. Few, if any, have used the words "Cook" and "charisma" in the same sentence. Although Brearley lists captains who oozed the stuff - Ian Botham, Brian Close, Ted Dexter and Ian Chappell - he ultimately considers it "a most limited asset to a captain". A golden dusting of charisma may help a captain in the beginning, but it ignores the key skill, "namely, that he knows his task".

Cook once deserved the captaincy on batting prowess alone, yet without charisma and game-plan nous, and given his pitiable run of scores, it's hard to see how he fits the Brearley-defined role of a great leader. There was also the whiff of Cook being selected because his squeaky-clean face/school/family fit the profile the ECB wanted to project. And here, I presume, Brearley has reason to take umbrage - read his quote of a statistic that confirmed "none of ten outstanding well-managed companies showed any indications of nepotism, class distinction or elitism in their selection or promotion practices". Brearley also believed a good captain must "be prepared to recommend that some members of staff be sacked". Can you see Cook calling for Moores' head? Asking that Downton be thrown into a well?

If Cook is indeed cast aside at the press conference on Saturday, who will be his successor?

The in-form Root? Too young, they say. He's a puppyish 23-years-old - two years junior to Mike Atherton when he was crowned at 25 (which he now admits was too early). Brearley also notes that "dealing with players significantly older" was problematic, and that there "must at least be a trace of unease" when a captain is giving orders to men old enough to be his father. Root might look like a schoolboy, but no one in the team is old enough to be his dad. Still, I wonder if we need an England captain who at least needs to shave.

How about Broad? A senior player now, and has previous captaincy experience. Could he lead England to World Cup glory? Not according to Sir Donald Bradman, who stressed that bowlers can "never be objective about their own craft". Brearley goes a step further, warning that a bowler-captain should only be chosen as a last resort: "with all his energy screwed up into a ball of aggression" he couldn't possibly be sensitive to the team needs.

So here we are, back to the baying Twitter mob. If Morgan had scored a ton in his game replacing the suspended Cook, then the smart money would be on the Irish-born left-hander. He didn't take his chance in Sri Lanka, and how I wish he had, but we know what he can do, and how cunningly he thinks about the one-day format.

He's also a better batsman than Brearley, and we might soon find out if he's a more successful captain - Brearley never won a World Cup.