Slamming the team's decision-making and selections, former captain Mike Atherton has said split captaincy between Test and one-day cricket is an obvious way forward for England.
"England's decision-making over the last cycle, though, is still based on the historical: selections are made through the prism of Test cricket. The captaincy is a case in point. My arguments against Alastair Cook were made three years ago at the time of his appointment and so I cannot be accused of being a Johnny-come-lately on this front," Atherton said in his column in The Times.
Arguing that next year, England play 17 Test matches between April and December, Atherton said: "It is impossible for one man to give the same amount of energy and attention to detail to two forms of the game under that kind of scheduling pressure. Split captaincy between Test and one-day cricket is an obvious way forward."
Noting that the traditional rule of thumb has always been that if you can play Test cricket you can play all forms of the game, Atherton said that may still hold true but two things have changed -- the ferocity and unforgiving nature of modern schedules -- which means that it is harder to excel at both or all three forms.
