Revamp

With all due respect to South Africa a home series defeat to the county is utterly humiliating. The nature of the defeat doesn't make it much better either. England's bowlers looked tired after the Lord's test match, in which they had two days to bowl out South Africa and take a 1-0 lead.

From this moment the South Africans took a huge physcological edge and this result may not surprise many after scrapping through at Lords. But on the face of it England were poor and shouldn't be loosing a series like this one.

In Micheal Vaughan's retirment as captain of the side the ECB and the chairman of selectors has had his job done for him. It was obvious to everyone that Vaughan was never going to be dropped no matter how bad his batting performances were. I use the term 'batting' very loosly, 40 runs in five innings is not batting its tail ender stuff.

How he lasted in this team with the side not winning under his captaincy as well is laughable. So he has done the ECB's job for them. I can safely say Vaughan will never play for England again until he regains anything like the sort of form that saw him gain the captaincy in the first place.

In addition Paul Collingwood has also stepped down as ODI captain a decsion that really puzzels me. The Champions Trophy squad has just been announced and with England looking forward to the next World Cup the tranistion had started for the one-day team.

How this helps the transition I have no idea. No-one was expecting miricals under Collingwood, well not straight away they weren't and he has gone and put a spanner in the works and stepped down. I am lost for words why. Sounds to me like the ECB want one captain and Collingwood either wasn't considered for the Test position or he didn't want it.

For a replacment I think putting Kevin Pietersen in there would be a huge mistake. he is England's most important player already, England don't want his form to take a hit if he is concentrating on captaining the side.

Same goes for Andrew Flintoff who doesn't need that responsibility again. For me the resurgence of Andrew Strauss in the England side porves to me that he is ready to take on the mantel. He captained the side to a series victory over Pakistan a few years ago and has one-day captaining experience as well.

Yes his sucess wasn't the best but expereience is key and I think that Pietersen and Flintoff don't need the added pressure.

I think Pietersen will get the job but i plead with the ECB to select someone with a lower profile and lesser influence on the teams performances.