Andrew Strauss is ready for the challenge of captaining England in the Ashes, according to Vic Marks.
Strauss is the right man for the job, says Marks
How skipper Andrew Strauss handles Andrew Flintoff will be crucial to England's Ashes campaign, according to the
Cricket Writers on TV panel.
All-rounder Flintoff was man of the series in the victorious 2005 series but then led England to a crushing 5-0 defeat in Australia to hand back the urn.
The Lancastrian is back in the ranks after undergoing knee surgery earlier this year and Vic Marks, of the Observer, believes Strauss can get the best out of him.
"I think Strauss is ready," said Marks. "I said to him 'you must feel lucky that you weren't made captain in 2006'; he didn't see it but I think there is some truth in that because the selectors went for Flintoff and England lost 5-0.
"Strauss did say 'that if I was captain I'm not sure we would have won that series either' but he might have been lucky to have avoided (being captain in) that series.
"Ashes defeats on that scale usually finish captains and I think England have been lucky in the last six or eight months that they've found themselves now with the right people in charge more by accident than design.
"Strauss is the right man; he has a terrific relationship with Flower and I think they are a very impressive pair."
Marks added: "I think Strauss is in quite a good position with Freddie in that Fred is not the cricketing colossus that he was four years ago.
"He has yet to prove that he can still be a colossus. He's dependant on Strauss to pick him for a start and to work with him so it's not as though he can overwhelm the rest of the dressing room because over the last two or three years you can't say he has been indispensable because he's barely been there and when he has he hasn't done very well.
Context
Derek Pringle, of the Daily Telegraph, agreed that Flower and Strauss have bonded well but said their style of management may not be suitable for the whole squad.
"It's a paternalistic type of partnership," said Pringle. "They want the players to think a little bit more for themselves. They've put pressure on them to do that and taken them over to Flanders to broaden their minds.
"But these kind of paternalistic regimes don't often work with senior players. Andrew Flintoff comes back into the side, misses his alarm call and is late on parade.
"I think he's probably had a stern word - I don't know if he's been fined - but the next time he could probably have a great punishment.
"Context is everything here. Players have always missed buses throughout history but you could argue this is showing disrespect. They are going over there to honour the dead and he's missed the bus for whatever reason."
Protect
Flintoff showed something of his 2005 form by smashing 93 from 41 balls in Lancashire's 56-run Twenty20 victory over Derbyshire and has got some overs under his belt in recent weeks too but Pringle still has some doubts about his potency.
"I went up to Liverpool to watch him and he bowled fearsomely quick but he did it in a six-over spell and maybe a five-over spell," he said.
"But a Test match on a much flatter pitch is going to be much harder work. All of this talk about we must protect Freddie and not overbowl him, well, if you can't use him in the usual way then he's not fit to play.
"If you look back to 2005 they used five bowlers but actually they didn't use five that often: they used it in the first Test and got beaten, in the second Test and clung on.
"By the third Test Simon Jones was starting to show his injury problems and he wasn't fit in the second innings of the fourth Test so they used four bowlers and in the last Test they used four bowlers."
