Right man, right time

In the June edition of Wisden Cricket Monthly Mike Atherton recalls his own selection as England captain to argue that Michael Vaughan is not too young or too inexperienced to take over leadership of the one-day team

When Michael Vaughan was appointed captain of England's one-day team he was 28 and a "veteran" of 184 first-class games. But his experience of captaincy is minimal and he has played only 28 Tests and 26 ODIs. Nor has he much life experience, as he has been a professional cricketer since school. Is the timing right?

Twenty-eight is not a bad age to be taking on further responsibility. Vaughan is old enough to have a broad understanding of the game but young enough still to have the energy and desire needed to captain a cricket team. I was 25 when appointed England captain, which was perceived by some to be too young. Graham Gooch was 36. In the modern game that is certainly too old.

Age, though, is not the most important factor. What is critical is how much a cricketer has experienced in his time. Duncan Fletcher has often said he would be reluctant to appoint anybody who had not been through a slump in form. A captain needs to know what players are feeling and what they are going through, and it is difficult to have that empathy if you have not been in that situation yourself.

That is why I thought 25 was not too young for me when I was appointed against Australia in 1993. I had already played the number of Tests that Vaughan has now; I had seen the downside of injury, the pain of surgery and the problems of rehabilitation; I had gone through a poor series against West Indies in 1991 and knew the frustrations of being out of the team during the India tour in 1992-93.

Equally I had been intimately acquainted with success, winning silverware with Lancashire in 1990 and 1991. It is essential to know what does not work but it is no less important to have a feel for what does. Playing under a number of different captains is a good thing because you see the various ways in which they handle people and situations. I had played under David Gower and Gooch with England. It would hard to find two more contrasting characters: Gooch leading by example, pushing himself to the limit and hoping that in itself would inspire; Gower more laid-back and cerebral. At Lancashire, I had played under the disciplinarian David Hughes and I had seen how debilitating injury and loss of form could be for a captain when Neil Fairbrother took on responsibilities.

Vaughan has played under Nasser Hussain, David Byas and Darren Lehmann. Hussain's captaincy style has changed in the time Vaughan has been around: open and encouraging enjoyment in South Africa in 1999-2000, grumpier and more distrustful of late. Vaughan, then, has seen the effect that pressure and responsibility can have on a captain's character. He noted as much in an interview in the Daily Telegraph when he said that Hussain has recently felt let down by his players. The feeling that you are on your own, that you alone can do the job, is a natural, although mistaken, reaction to failure.

Byas had a fractious relationship with Yorkshire's star player Darren Gough - almost an Alex Ferguson/David Beckham type of problem. Ultimately Byas's strength of character won out and Yorkshire won the Championship. A year later, under a different captain, Yorkshire were relegated. It does not take much for winners to become losers or the other way around. Confidence is such a fragile thing. Let us hope that Vaughan has been filing away all this knowledge for later use.

He experienced form slumps early in his career. Indeed, much of his learning period, on the difficult pitches at Headingley, resulted in pickings so slim that, when he was finally selected for England, against South Africa in 1999-2000, he had a first-class average below 30. Perhaps that will give him a better insight when he gives his views on selection. Perhaps he will recognise when players reach maturity and when they know their game because it took him so long to do so.

What Vaughan has not had yet is a lean patch with England. He will surely do so and, with the harsh glare of publicity, it is much more difficult to cope with than with your county. As England captain, on top of public duties and responsibility for the wellbeing of other players, every net and practice session are scrutinised much more intensely so that it becomes more difficult to spend quality time on your own form.

Vaughan, though, will have the advantage of a stronger support staff than existed in the 1990s. For a while when I was England captain we had no press liaison officer, for example, and for 18 months there was no coach. In the absence of central contracts things occasionally became overwhelming resulting in serious fatigue. Vaughan will have fewer problems in those areas. He ought to be able to maintain his fitness and enthusiasm longer than others before him as long as his management team are wise enough to ensure that cricket remains the priority.

Though Vaughan has negligible first-hand experience of captaincy, I have never felt that county captaincy is a prerequisite for leading England. Indeed, such is the cautious nature of county cricket and the prevalence of a risk-averse culture that not captaining a county might be an advantage.

Lack of life experience is an unfortunate by-product of professional sport. Mike Brearley may well be the last England captain to have had a "degree in people" while in the job. Most of us feel we have attained it afterwards - but it is too late by then, of course. By the time Vaughan finishes leading England he will be a whole lot wiser and will look a touch older no doubt.

The selectors have turned to Vaughan because they will want, as soon as possible, to unite the one-day and Test captaincies. By giving Vaughan the one-day job they can offer him a gentler introduction than might have been possible as well as taking a good look at how the robes of responsibility fit him. If they fit well, the England team will have one spokesman, rather than two, in the near future.

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The June 2003 edition of Wisden Cricket Monthly is on sale at all good newsagents in the UK and Ireland, priced £3.25.