England's best Test Captain

[BillN_33]

Just a simple online poll by the BBC

Based on your selections, the five best England Test captains of all time are (in ranking order):

1. Mike Brearley (1977-1981 - P31, W18, L4; Win percentage 58.06%)
2. Michael Vaughan (2003-2008 - P51, W26, L11; Win percentage 50.98%)
3. Andrew Strauss (2006-2012 - P50, W24, L11; Win percentage 48%)
4. Alastair Cook (2010-present - P55, W24, L18; Win percentage 43.63%)
5. Douglas Jardine (1931-1934 - P15, W9, L1; Win percentage 60%)

I voted for Brian Clough, Hutton, Vaughan, May and Illingworth ...... probably because I'm an old fart and don't like Cooke

The Poll wasn't based on Win percentages ........ just who do you think was the best England Captains

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Mike Brearly was the best man manager we have had. He always got the best out of the team even when all seemed impossible.

 

[onomatopoeia]

I'm not old enough to remember Jardine, though I I do know why he is well known and why he was so successful. Of the remainder I'd go with Brearley, who wasn't a terribly good batsman by test match standards and probably wouldn't have been able to keep his place, other than the fact as captain he could draw performances from the team as a whole that others could not.

 

[Russ77]

I've watched documentaries about Brearley, very interesting bloke who as others have said, probably would have struggled to get into the team as a batsman but always managed to get the best out of every player.

Whilst Strauss & Vaughan have better win percentages than Cook, they had far better players at their disposal for the majority of their years as captain whereas the England team/squad were in more of a transitional phase for the early part of Cook's tenure.

Cook's captaincy is much like his batting, very conservative but for me Vaughan was a more attractive captain in some of the risks he took and a lot more entertaining batsman which would make him my pick.

Having said all that, considering the players that Hussain had at his disposal I don't think he did too bad and had a very hard competitive edge which I liked (very Australian/South African like) and Alec Stewart should be highly commended as a captain/wicket keeper/batsmen when England almost struggled to pick a decent county XI to compete against very strong Australian & WI teams.