Daily Cricket News

Cook to captain England ODI team, Broad gets T20 job

Alastair Cook and Stuart Broad were appointed as the new captains of England's one-day international (ODI) and Twenty20 teams respectively, it was announced here in London on Thursday.

Andrew Strauss, who has retired from one-dayers, remains Test skipper meaning England now have separate captains for all three international formats.

Cook, Strauss's opening partner in Tests, was not even a member of the England side at the recent one-day World Cup in the subcontinent.

Broad replaced all-rounder Paul Collingwood as Twenty20 captain.

Strauss, who led England to the World Cup quarter-finals where they were beaten by Sri Lanka in Colombo in March, said: "I've enjoyed my time as England one-day captain immensely and I'm extremely proud of the strides we've made in limited overs cricket over the past two years.

"We still have a long way to go if we're to achieve our goal of winning ICC global events and I feel now is the right time for me to step aside and ensure someone else takes up that challenge.

"Retiring from one-day cricket will also enable me to focus solely on the Test captaincy and our ongoing development in the Test arena as we also strive to be the top ranked team in world cricket."

Strauss, 34, had been widely expected to stand down from ODIs after the World Cup.

England scraped through the group phase but then suffered a 10-wicket thrashing by Sri Lanka, having arrived at the World Cup after just a few days at home following their Ashes-winning tour of Australia.

Cook was the star England batsman during the 3-1 Ashes series triumph, making 766 runs.

But he was not included in the subsequent one-day series or World Cup squads. There has long been the belief the 26-year-old, who has made just three ODI appearances in the past two-and-a-half years, all during last year's tour of Bangladesh when Strauss was rested, is too staid a batsman for ODIs.

However, much the same was long said about fellow left-hander Strauss and he was England's best batsman at the World Cup, scoring a superb century in the thrilling tie with co-hosts and eventual champions India.

This will be the first time England have had captains for all three forms of international cricket and coach Andy Flower admitted the new set-up was potentially risky.

"We are covering new ground," Flower said. "We do not know 100 percent whether it will work or be an effective and efficient system, but we are going to give it a try.

"With the quality people around us, I think we form a good leadership team."

Cook said: "Andrew Strauss has led the one-day team to continued success over the past two years and I'll be looking to continue that progress as captain.

"I've worked hard on my limited overs cricket in recent times - I've never seen myself as a Test batsman exclusively and I know I have a lot to offer strategically and as a top order batsman in one-day cricket."

Fast-bowling all-rounder Broad, will make his debut as T20 captain when he leads world champions against Sri Lanka in Bristol on June 25.

He said: "It's a huge privilege to be named England Twenty20 captain.

Collingwood added: "It's been a privilege to captain my country. The highlight was clearly last year's World Twenty20 title but there have been many achievements to be proud of."