and not a single person has commented on Joe Root finally facing reality

[Colemans Left Hook]

I can't remember for how many years we have all known he is hopeless as a captain and it was so obvious for so long he had to go.

The amazing thing is that being captain hasn't affected his performance as a batsman without checking is he still the world's No.1 ?.

I remember Mike Brearly captaining England in Boycott times ( chalk and cheese there  !!) and if he grafted his way to 27 as an opener he had done well. But he was the best captain England has had in my time. I seem to remember him playing for Oxford Or Cambridge Univ against the first class teams meaning we had a captain with a brain.

[BahrainRover]

This can be said for most situations. But unfortunately we seem to live with the mentality that being best at something, be it batsman/player/most productive in the work place will automatically mean your the best to leader/manager. This really is not the case, they are totally different skill sets altogether. I have seen people through out my working life who would be great managers, with great people skills get overlooked because they don’t shine as bright or obvious as the star performer in that given situation. We seem to confuse skill up with intellectual ability unfortunately.

[redwine]

If you've not read it, his book "the art of captaincy" is excellent.

[selby]

  I don't know if Illingworth and Close had quite the education that Brearly had, but they certainly matched anyone as cricket captains, Illingworth was like a computer on cricket knowledge, and Close got the best out of a Yorkshire and Somerset sides that probably had the most diverse set of personalities put together as a team and still got the best out of them.

[selby]

  Michael Vaughan was a great cricket captain, moulded a side of characters into a winning team and all great captains mentioned had brilliant players in each team who turned it on when needed, the Trueman's, Flintoff,  Boycott, Peterson, and Snows don't come along that often and make captaining a side easy.
  The present England side are carting around the world eight or nine players simply not good enough, a bunch of stodgy front order batters and a load of sloggers who when the ball moves around haven't got a clue, brought up on heavily loamed pitches that do nothing.
  Root has been dealt a bum hand, and I bet if the county players were asked to pick a team quite a few of the present team would get nowhere near being selected.