'Strauss can do anything he puts his mind to...'
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
AFP
Andrew Strauss' best friend, Ben Hutton, knows the new England captain will show the self-belief and determination he does in all other areas of life. Read more in the Independent.
I have been lucky enough to see, at first hand, most stages of Andrew's life. Progression from cocky, precocious schoolboy, to shambolic undergraduate, responsible county captain, match-winning international cricketer, and now committed family man. Evident from the start was a competitive nature the like of which many of us at school had never previously witnessed. Whether it was playing stump cricket with a tennis ball in a corridor of the school dormitory, hitting golf balls on a driving range or chipping them at a flag on a green, he wanted to be the best.
As the England captaincy was passed from Kevin Pietersen to Andrew Strauss, the contrast with five months earlier could not have been sharper. Strauss does not have Pietersen's presence or star quality, but there was, as expected, an air of calm reassurance in the Warner Stand at Lord's, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.
Strauss was pointedly introduced yesterday as “England's Test captain” and, when asked about the one-day situation, was forced to concede it was “in flux” (in other words, nobody has a clue what will happen). Had Geoff Miller, the national selector, gone down the route suggested by The Times after Vaughan resigned, and appointed Strauss to the Test captaincy and Pietersen to the one-day job, England would not be faced with a situation in which their only viable candidate has been ignored as a one-day player for the past 18 months.
Kevin Pietersen's self-belief is both a help and a hindrance, writes Ed Smith in the Telegraph.
How many international newcomers have the phenomenal self-belief to return to the homeland they have shunned, with boos ringing around the stadium, and score not just one century, but three hundreds in five innings?
That is what Kevin Pietersen did in South Africa in 2005. This, surely, was a signal not just of an extraordinary talent, but a man made of different stuff from ordinary mortals.
How many of us, having watched the county captain throw your kit bag over the dressing-room balcony, would have the single-mindedness to stay with the side and help secure promotion the following season?
That is what Pietersen did in 2004 at Nottinghamshire after very publicly falling out with Jason Gallian – a strong hint that Pietersen's ability to block out distractions is extraordinary.
There has been far too much made of the meeting with Australia this summer, as though England's fixtures with other teams held no significance. For the tour to the West Indies, which begins later this month, the selectors have a chance to teach Pietersen a lesson in humility. They should drop him, and include Rob Key of Kent, writes Michael Henderson in the Telegraph.
Read Barney Ronay's take on the resignations of England captains in the Guardian.
While Michael Vaughan's captaincy resignation was classical and beautifully orthodox, Pietersen's was something else: a flair resignation, instinctive, full of improvisation, even ugly at times. This was resignation presidential-style. The only regret was that it didn't involve Pietersen standing at a raised dais, perhaps making sweeping hand gestures.
As Hugh Morris begins the search for Peter Moores' successor, what can he learn from the previous incumbents? Paul Coupar has more in the Guardian.
From an academic point of view, what the whole Kevin Pietersen-Peter Moores face-off has brought up, once again, is a debate about the relative authority of captains and coaches in world cricket, writes Kunal Pradhan in the Indian Express.
George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo