Whitaker & Co Picked Too Many Nearly Men

James Whitaker is a decent bloke whose efforts to help find the right players for England were tireless. But it is one thing watching loads of cricketers play and another thing entirely being able to see if they can play.

- Peter Hayter

Former England coach Duncan Fletcher, who, with skipper Michael Vaughan and chairman of selectors David Graveney, put together the team that brought them England’s memorable Ashes victory of 2005, reckoned it took him about 15 minutes to work out if a player had what it takes, sometimes less.

And that knack enabled him to fast track Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick into the England set-up, though, for the sake of fairness it has to be said he was never totally convinced about Alastair Cook.

But Whitaker’s record as the second highly-paid National Selector, in succession to Geoff Miller, suggests he and his panel got more wrong than right and, in the end, despite the announcement of his departure being couched in terms of a new approach and a new system for selection, being why he and his panel had to make way.

In ODI cricket they persevered far too long with the old guard, including Cook, Ian Bell and, for all his many qualities, Jonathan Trott, and it was only the disaster of the last World Cup that forced a change in personnel and approach.