Captain Courageous

Pietersen - Colourful And Courageous Captain.

David Lloyd reflects on KP's captaincy, Graham Taylor's dress sense, national days and a top cult comedy.

You only had to look in Michael Vaughan's eyes on Sunday morning to see he was absolutely spent. Clearly he'd woken up and decided: "that's it, I've had enough, I'm off".

He said his gut feeling was to stand down and he's dead right to do so. He's been a marvellous captain for five years but they all go the same way; Atherton, Stewart, Hussain and the rest gave it their all, but there comes a time when somebody else has to have a go.

That person is Kevin Pietersen, and as soon as England decided they wanted the same bloke to captain all three sides then there wasn't really any other option.

He's the only player certain to play for all of the teams so it had to be Pietersen. It seems we've done things the Aussie way - pick a team and then pick a captain afterwards - which isn't how we've tended to do it in the past.

Time will tell if he'll be a good choice. It's a dangerous appointment, but it's a brave appointment and he could take us to places that a stereotypical England captain might not. He'll be quite confrontational at times and that might upset a few of the English stiff upper lips, but he'll give us something else, that's for sure.

I don't think he'll change his way of playing, and so he shouldn't. While it's not for me to give advice I'd just say to him: 'be yourself and don't try to be something that you're not'.

People say the pressures of captaincy might affect his form, but we'd be saying that whoever got the job. I know he's our best player, but it never bothered Viv Richards did it? I'm sure Kevin will be fine.

One good thing is that he's a middle-order batsman and he's not right up there at the top of the innings or having to open the bowling. That should give him time to sit back and assess.

I also can't wait to see how he goes about influencing the team and the tempo of play. He'll never be in a stronger position than he is now so I'm waiting to see what tweaks he makes, whether the backroom staff changes and whether our approach to games will be different.

We need to start scoring at three-and-a-half to four an over in the first innings, but we don't seem to be capable of getting past 250 at the moment.

I was confident that we'd beat South Africa, but we've not come close because the batting has let us down time and time again. They've scored centuries while we've scored 40s and 50s, it's as simple as that.

There's no question that we've got good players, but there's something mentally stopping them from scoring centuries.

Once you get to 40 or 50 you've done that hard work; you're past your vulnerability at the start of your innings and you're past the vulnerability of a new ball and a fresh pitch.

But for some reason we get out and that has to be a mental thing. Without putting any fancy words on it, it's all about concentration.

In my view, when we're bang in the middle of a Test match, our players are still practising. You'll see them trying different things as if they're still in the nets and you just can't do that in Test cricket.

You never see South Africa do that, they play the ball and walk away time and time again. Concentrate on, concentrate off. There's no time for practice in the middle of a Test match.

I'm now very doubtful that we can win the Ashes next summer. South Africa will give Australia a run for their money home and away this winter, but England will have to improve a lot.

It's not rocket science for the players. Our batsmen need to stop practising in the middle and get down to business - just like Graeme Smith did when he scored 150 to win the game.

There was quite a football presence at Edgbaston. I spoke to Trevor Francis, who loves his cricket, and Graham Taylor was there looking like somebody from the Mafia.

He was all in black with a yellow tie and dark glasses as if he was on his way to audition for the Blues Brothers. Do I not like that!

I've never met him but I think he's a great man and he's really good on the radio. People give him stick because of his time as England manager, but you're only as good as the muppets you've got to work with.

I don't think Fabio Capello will fare much better. I know somebody in the England football set-up who says they've only got six decent players, so he's got no chance.

The cricket team is bad news, the football team is bad news and I tell you what, I'm not going to watch the Olympics either.

I think there's far too many cheats and there's too much of a drugs problem in athletics. You can tell from all the women who turn up with beards.

It's just not right and I'm not interested. Beach volleyball, welly throwing... I won't be tuning in for any of it.

We had loads and loads of e-mails on the subject of which national day was taking place last Thursday.

Many of you were right, I was referring to national orgasm day. A few people thought it was national cheesecake day, but that was actually the day before. I thought it was obvious when I said I'd reveal the answer at the climax of the programme.

I've got to admit, I didn't get involved with the celebrations. That's left for birthdays and anniversaries.

I dread it coming round...

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