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It seems something of a luxury for English cricket, after a tortured couple of years, to be pondering the next generation of leaders rather than the fates of the present crop of captains. Alastair Cook will board a plane for the Test tour to South Africa on Thursday secure in his position as captain, despite the recent series defeat by Pakistan, while Eoin Morgan returned from UAE with comprehensive series wins in both white-ball formats.
The succession planning for life beyond Cook and Morgan is well under way, though, and it is here that the influence of Andy Flower is being brought to bear. In Dubai today, England Lions will begin a five-match Twenty20 series against Pakistan A, part of a winter programme with a sole focus on one-day cricket.
Flower is head coach of the Lions, yet another strand of the multifaceted role that he has taken on since resigning as coach of the senior England team. It — bearing the unwieldy job title of technical director of elite coaching — is to cultivate the next generation of England captains.
James Vince, fresh from his successful first series with Morgan’s Twenty20 team, will be the Lions’ captain, but he has been among a group of players undertaking military-style training to develop leadership skills.
The issue of England’s captains-in-waiting was brought into focus recently when Morgan was rested during the Twenty20 series against Pakistan, handing the reins on to Jos Buttler, his nominated vice-captain. Buttler had never captained in senior cricket and was given a baptism of fire in Dubai, pressed into organising his bowlers and their field settings amid the frantic final stages of a Twenty20 run chase, which England eventually won by three runs.
Just as net practice can never quite emulate the adrenaline of the middle, so Buttler sampled for the first time the heightened emotions that come with responsibility. “It’s a lot more emotional,” he said. “You ride the highs and lows more, but I enjoyed it.”
In Test cricket, Joe Root is Cook’s vice-captain and anointed heir. Like so many who graduate early to international cricket in the age of central contracts, Root has precious little practical experience of captaincy, having led Yorkshire just three times.
Cook was in a similar situation while he was being groomed for the captaincy and, in 2010, he was given a dry run when Andrew Strauss was rested for the tour of Bangladesh. Next autumn, England are due to visit Bangladesh and the possibility of giving Root the same responsibility is being mooted. This shortage of leadership experience among emerging players is a gaping hole that Flower is trying to plug.
For the Lions players, part of their preparation for the tour to the UAE was a visit to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. It included a problem-solving scenario that required players to take charge of an island ravaged by a hurricane where the airport had been blown up, bridges destroyed and plans had to be formulated for distributing medicine and food in limited time. Players were ordered by four Sandhurst officers to outline their strategies.
“I was up on stage and got grilled about something I wasn’t really too sure about,” Vince said. “It was a bit uncomfortable at times, but I think everyone got something out of it.”
Gemma Morgan, a management consultant with a military background, has spent two weeks in Dubai alongside Flower and the Lions players, working to improve different aspects of their leadership skills and encouraging the squad to become increasingly self-reliant. In that respect, a leadership group including Vince, Tom Westley, the vice-captain, Dawid Malan and Ross Whiteley have been designing training sessions and asking for input from the coaches only when required. “It’s important that we become our own leaders and this was one step towards doing that,” Westley said.
Not all the knowledge gleaned by the captains-in-waiting is the result of leadership coaching, though, or of military instruction. “Keith Fletcher was a renowned Essex captain and he still watches a lot,” Westley said. “So I try to catch him for a coffee to talk about the tactical side of things.”
Once upon a time, those pearls of wisdom would have been dispensed over a post-match pint, but their value has seldom been higher.
Who will follow Cook?
Joe Root
Test vice-captain
Four first-class matches as captain, one for England Lions in 2013 and three games for Yorkshire last year.
Jos Buttler
One-day vice-captain
Before leading England in Dubai recently, he had never captained in senior cricket, his experience limited to brief stints for England Under-18 and Somerset second XI.
James Vince
England Lions captain
Should gain more experience than most, having led Hampshire’s one-day side and been appointed four-day captain for 2016.
Tom Westley
England Lions vice-captain
Highly rated in his time as England Under-19 captain and has led Durham MCCU, but yet to captain Essex.