I realise that cricket isn't the most popular of sports on here but i felt this at least required a vague acknowledgement.
For me Vaughan has been a superb captain but has lost his way a bit as he has seemed to become a parody of himself in an effort to make a contribution during his struggles with the bat. I hope the break he's taking does him good and he does come back at make runs and if he makes it back in to the team then good on him.
Regardless he has had a splendid career so far and has been a thorough pleasure to watch.
It's hard to treat Collingwoods passing in the same way due to circumstance as much as anything. His resignation of the ODI captaincy stinks of being pushed to allow them to appoint a single captain for all forms of the game. Colly is a decent cricketer, perhaps not strictly test grade (although he has certainly had his moments) but certainly an exceptional ODI player and i hope he continues in that team.
Now, what the hell are they going to do.
We now have a slot at number 3 to fill and a captaincy to fill (glossing over the questions on number of bowlers, wicketkeeper and collys spot at 6 for now).
Three candidates basically. Owais Shah, Rob Key and Ravi Bopara.
Key would slot straight in at 3
Shah & Bopara would likely take 5 with Bell moving back up to 3.
For me i'd put Key in. I much prefer Bell at 5 than 3 and feel that Bopara (he'd be my second choice ahead of Shah) maybe doesn't have the 2 gears that test cricketers in the middle order require. He's an exceptional ODI and T20 player but I'm not quite sold on him in tests... yet.
KP is massive odds-on (1/16) for the captaincy, he did a decent job of it in the one outing he has had so far and it will be interesting to see if it inserts a little discipline in his game, not change it, just play to the situation a shade more.
Key & Strauss are the other realistic alternatives, obviously Key has to be picked first and it would be a leap of faith to give him the captaincy although certainly not a ridiculous idea and one i quite favour.
Strauss i'd hate to see as captain. He's a little too border line with his form for me and if he has a downturn then we are just looking at getting shot of another captain in 6-12 months. He also is unable to consolidate the captaincy roles in all forms of the game whereas KP and Key have a shot at that (KP being a sure pick for all forms and Key certainly having a much stronger claim in ODI and T20 than Strauss will ever manage).
I sit and hope that the ECB get their house in order.
Vaughan & Collingwood quit captaincy
