Andrew Strauss has admitted he was disappointed to miss out on the England captaincy to Kevin Pietersen.
South-Africa born Pietersen, 28, was confirmed as Test skipper after Michael Vaughan quit and also replaced former one-day skipper Paul Collingwood.
But England opener Strauss captained his country successfully in 2006, winning three out of five Test when Vaughan was injured, and felt he deserved another chance.
PHOTO: AFP
“The selectors had a decision to make. They spoke long and hard about which direction they wanted to go in,” Strauss said.
“If they wanted a captain for all three formats including Twenty20, the list would have been short,” he said. “I’m not involved in two of the formats and Alastair Cook hasn’t been in the Twenty20 side recently.”
“I would have liked to have done the Test job and, to that degree, I am disappointed I have not been given the opportunity,” he said.
Strauss believes Pietersen will find it hard to emulate Vaughan, who won 26 of his 51 Tests during a five-year reign, because he has so little captaincy experience.
“It is a brave decision because KP [Pietersen] hasn’t done much captaincy before. But I think he has matured a lot in the last couple of years,” Strauss said.
“We are all very sad Michael has decided to step down. Having been such an influential figure in the dressing room, it is going to take some used to someone else being in charge,” he said. “It is a big job. I’ve done it a few times and you only had to see how much it meant to Michael Vaughan yesterday to realize it is an encompassing job.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but