Who's the best touring English captain ever?

The thing I liked about Andrew Strauss's captaincy is when things weren't going England's way (as was the case in Perth during the 3rd Test which Australia won), he kept a level head and didn't panic after the loss. In hindsight, would England have won the Ashes if Kevin Pietersen was still in charge?

The only person prompting the zeds is you, Spencer. Jardine may well have been born in Bombay to Scotch parents, but he grew up and was educated in England and, as this thread asks about people captaining the England Cricket team in Australia, he obviously is included as an 'English' Captain. If you have some spurious anti-English and/or republican agenda to get off your chest, just spit it out instead of making pedantic, clever dick posts.

What has "dear" to do with it? "Yes he was".."no he wasn't".."Yes he..." zzzzzz Jardine was British, but not English.

Oh dear, here we go again.Yes he was.

Except that Jardine wasn't English.

It's Jardine for me, by some way.

Interesting question, old bean. The marvellous thing about Strauss is the way he leads from the front. He is by no means a crackerjack batsman technically - certainly he pales in comparison to Ponting in that regard - but his iron-clad mind (developed on the playing fields of Radley) allows him to score bountiful runs in a delightfully assertive manner. His aggressive 60-odd in Sydney was a classic of its kind. "Velvet wrapped in steel" sums it up perfectly - and he is not the first pukka English chap to be written off by the Aussies because of his old-world gentlemanly mién. They made the same mistake with Cook. (The ony other captain in world cricket who matches Strauss in the "Leader of Men" stakes is Graeme Smith, also a product of a fine public school (KES) and of sterling Anglo stock but, alas, also prone to colonial bumptiousess and block-headedness and, consequently, never wholly convincing to my mind). I'm a great fan of Brearley, naturally, but he wasn't much of a batsman and the Australians he confronted weren't exactly brilliant. I think he's one for the intellectuals rather than than one to conquer the hearts of for we red-blooded sporting chaps. Illingworth and Hutton were Yorkshiremen. Say no more, chaps. Jardine was an utter hero. Every English schoolboy ought to have a poster of Jardine on his dormitory wall. I should certainly place him as my Number One English captain to tour Australia. But an honourable mention for Nasser Hussain, a man painfully misunderstood by Australians. Nasser really was the chap who helped to turn around the ailing ship of English cricket (along with Fletcher). Hard, spiky, clever, emotional - he was by no means the classic England captain but he was someone who cared deeply and someone who was not afraid to confront the Australians, despite the fact he had a rather poor team behind him. There was almost a touch of Border to Hussain, imo. And the worst England captain to tour Australia? Well, that's an easy one: Andrew Flintoff. The man was an utter disgrace. I read recently that after the appalling defeat in Adelaine in '06, he hung around the Australia dressing room for hours and eventually, around midnight, had to be asked to leave the rooms so that the Aussie chaps could sing their team song. Apparently he asked to be allowed to stay so that he could listen to the song! Truly remarkable, but sadly unsurprising. The lesson? Pick a decent public school chap - or, in desperation, a hard Yorkshireman - as captain. Otherwise, forget it.

Interesting series, the 1911/12 Ashes contest. Worth repeating briefly. England won 4-1, led by Johnny Douglas, a fine all-rounder. Indeed, all-rounders were the key to the team. There were two fast bowling all-rounders in Douglas & Frank Foster, & two left-arm spinning all-rounders in Wilfred Rhodes & Frank Woolley. Douglas was also a boxing champion who defeated our Snowy Baker in a controversial match for the gold medal at the 1908 Olympics. Douglas' father was the match referee! The team also had the imperious opener Jack Hobbs & Indomitable medium-fast genius Sydney Barnes. Tiger Smith was a highly competent keeper, while batsmen Johnny Hearne, George Gunn & Colin Mead rounded out the team. The only weakness was a lack of a frontline spinner, although Rhodes & Woolley covered this weakness more than adequately. The Australian was on paper almost as good - Victor Trumper, Warren Bardsley, Clem Hill(c), Warwick Armstrong, Charlie Macartney, Vernon Ransford, Charlie Kelleway, Ranji Hordern, Sammy Carter(k), Tibby Cotter, Bill Whitty, Bob Minnett. Plenty of talent & depth in both batting & bowling. Unfortunately, the team was engaged in an insidious fracas with the new Australian Board of Control (for Cricket) over governorship of the game in Australia. Until now the players had largely run the game themselves. The players were clearly distracted & discontent. When the 1912 tour team was announced for the far-sighted triangular tournament with England & South Africa, Hill, Trumper, Armstrong, Ransford, Carter, Cotter & Hordern all made themselves unavailable, robbing Australia of its core strength.

Happy Hooker, Sorry, but in 1911/12 Pelham Warner was captain designate. He scored 151 in the opening tour game before falling ill & not playing another match on tour. The captaincy went to JWHT ("Johnny Won't Hit Today) Douglas, a tall, impressive athlete (also a boxing champion) & dour fast bowling all-rounder, who led England to a 4-1 series victory. Warner had also successfully led the 1903/04 England team to victory, & was manager for the Bodyline series in 1932/33. Warner was the Mike Brearley of his day - a competent, but not great test batsman, but a brilliant intellectual. James Cook did set foot twice on Australian soil - at Botany Bay & the sight of today's Cooktown - & this can be said to be his tour matches! By all accounts, Cook was a wickedly deciving bowler of swing, seam & spin, with mastery of direction, line, length, flight, drift, tides, currents, winds, shoals, stars, scurvy, etc, etc, etc.....

And that Bodyline series of 1932-33 not only caused a major rift in the long-standing relationship between Australia and England, it very nearly led to the 1934 Australian tour of England being called off. It was only when the MCC outlawed 'leg-theory' bowling and thrown Douglas Jardine and Harold Larwood out of the game, that the tour went ahead.

Jason, Excellent question. There's only one answer - Douglas Jardine. The fact he got under the skin of us Aussies still to this day says it all. His philosophy was ridiculously simple - "you have to be meaner than those other bastards to beat them"! Yes indeed..... The 4 winning skippers I've seen- Ray Illingworth (1970/71), Mike Brearley (78/79), Mike Gatting (86/87) & Andrew Strauss (2010/11) were all impressive leaders of excellent teams. I would doff my cap at Strauss, who is steel wrapped in velvet - a nice guy on the surface, but tough as old boots in his pursuit of victory.

The best English captain ever to tour Australia? I'd say James Cook, although trivia buffs know he was the only English captain to tour and not play in a Test.

A captain is only as good as his players and the six touring English captains listed here all had excellent players at their disposal. Good captains get the best out of their teams and again, all six of these captains inspired consistently good performances from their men. One touring captain who failed to get the best of a strong team was Peter May in 1958-59. Any team including May himself, Colin Cowdrey, Tom Graveney, Trevor Bailey, Godfrey Evans, Brian Statham, Frank Tyson, Fred Trueman, Jim Laker and Tony Lock should have been hard to beat, but they were thrashed by Richie Benaud’s Australians. Rumour has it the team was divided and unhappy even before the defeats started. Assessing a successful captain also means assessing the quality of the opposition. Mike Brearley was lucky in 1978-79, his almost full-strength England side (lacking only Derek Underwood) found itself up against a Graham Yallop-led Australia torn to shreds by WSC defections. Effectively, England’s first XI men beat Australia’s third XI boys. So Brearley misses the cut. So does Mike Gatting in 1986-87. The Australians that summer were in a rebuilding phase not helped by defections to so-called “rebel” tours of South Africa. Some of the Australians went on to achieve great things, but a team including Peter Sleep, Greg Ritchie and Tim Zoehrer was never going to trouble a strong England line-up. Andrew Strauss’s 2010-11 achievement of winning three Ashes Tests by an innings is the stuff of greatness, but this summer’s Australians were poorly selected, lacked a bowling spearhead and also lacked a reliable top order. You can only play the opposition served up to you, but Strauss and his men faced a vastly weaker Australian team than the one that triumphed 5-0 in 2006-07. Sorry, Straussy, but you’re gone too. So that leaves the big three: Jardine, Hutton and Illingworth. All three were lucky enough to have what every captain dreams of _ a truly great squad of fast bowlers. Jardine had Harold Larwood as his spearhead, backed up by Bill Voce and Bill Bowes. Hutton had Frank Tyson, supported by Brian Statham and Trevor Bailey. Illingworth had John Snow, with Peter Lever and a young Bob Willis to keep the pressure on. There was also plenty of spin bowling talent in the 1932-33, 1954-55 and 1970-71 touring England sides _ Hedley Verity, Bob Appleyard, Johnny Wardle, Underwood and Illingworth. As we all know, bowlers win matches. You could argue that Illingworth’s tourists caught an Australian squad in transition and not of the highest quality. Bill Lawry was sacked as captain and player before the last, vital, Test. Future greats such as Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh were callow debutants in this series. Spin was weak _ Ashley Mallett and Kerry O’Keeffe played just two Tests each, and Johnny Gleeson’s 14 wickets were expensive. Of the quicks, Graham McKenzie didn’t fire, and neither did Tony Dell or Froggy Thomson. The English batsmen helped themselves. Australia’s batting was solid enough, but Snow was lethal that summer _ 31 wickets at 22.83. Illingworth is third captain on my list. Jardine devised the ruthless strategy of leg theory/Bodyline, the subject of much controversy then and since, to bring Bradman back to the pack. It was relatively successful, Bradman’s average in 1932-33 being little more than half his career average. But Larwood couldn’t bowl all day, and his threat was greater than Voce and Bowes. Australia’s batting line-up included Bill Woodfull, Jack Fingleton, Bill Ponsford, Bradman and Stan McCabe, all outstanding players, but the bowling attack was led by leg-spinners Bill O’Reilly and Clarrie Grimmett. The new ball was in the hands of Tim Wall, not remembered as a great Australian quick. It’s close, but Jardine is runner-up, although his ruthless single-mindedness in grinding the opposition down has rarely been equalled. So that leaves Len Hutton, the first professional to lead England. He wasn’t a great people person off the field. On the ship coming out to Australia, Hutton bailed up reserve wicketkeeper Keith Andrew and told him he had no chance whatsoever of challenging for Godfrey Evans’s Test place. Those were the last words he spoke to Andrew on the tour, even when Andrew replaced an injured Evans for one Test. But Hutton’s team rallied magnificently after the huge loss in Brisbane that opened the series. It wasn’t a bad Australian team either _ Arthur Morris, Keith Miller, Ray Lindwall, Neil Harvey, Ron Archer, Richie Benaud, Peter Burge, Alan Davidson, Bill Johnston and Jim Burke all played in that series. Some were probably a bit past their best while others were still in the apprentice stage, but no one would describe this as a weak Australian team. So, by the narrowest of margins, Len Hutton is my choice as the best touring English captain. The Ashes is scarcely the pinnacle of Test cricket these days. Anyone lucky enough to watch Dale Steyn bowling at Sachin Tendulkar recently saw Test cricket of the highest standard. But there’s nothing like an Ashes series to get the juices flowing.

Jardine number one without doubt. Not only did he have to win the Ashes, he had to contend with PF Warner, GO Allen and the MCC all trying to undermine him at the same time.