Alastair Cook ‘honoured’ to be named England ODI captain

Alastair Cook has been named England’s one-day international captain after Andrew Strauss’ resignation, while Stuart Broad has succeeded Paul Collingwood as Twenty20 skipper.

Despite being omitted from the recent World Cup, 26-year-old Essex batsman Cook takes over from Strauss, who will focus on his Test duties.

“It’s a huge honour to be asked to captain England,” Cook told a news conference at Lord’s on Thursday. “I’m quite inexperienced as a captain but I think that gives me a lot of room for improvement.

“I’m excited by the challenge of taking our 50-over cricket to new heights and I believe I can play an integral role with the bat as well as captain.

“I’ve worked hard on my limited overs cricket in recent times – I’ve never seen myself as a Test batsman exclusively and I know I have a lot to offer strategically and as a top order batsman in one-day cricket.

“I’m just really excited to see how the three of us, as captains in different forms, can work together to improve England in all form of the game.”

Strauss, meanwhile, said he was proud of his side’s achievements during his reign as ODI skipper but now wants to focus on his role in the Test arena.

“I’ve enjoyed my time as England one-day captain immensely and I’m extremely proud of the strides we’ve made in limited overs cricket over the past two years,” Strauss said.

“We still have a long way to go if we’re to achieve our goal of winning ICC global events and I feel now is the right time for me to step aside and ensure someone else takes up that challenge.”

He added: “Retiring from one-day cricket will also enable me to focus solely on the Test captaincy and our ongoing development in the Test arena as we also strive to be the top-ranked team in world cricket.”

Broad, 24, could not hide his delight at being named Twenty20 skipper, but coach Andy Flower admitted Collingwood, who led England to World Twenty20 glory only last year, was “hugely disappointed” to lose the captaincy.

“He’s very disappointed, as you would expect,” said Flower. “He’s been a very successful Twenty20 captain for us, and he’s been as outstanding member of the England side for a long time.

“I don’t think any side has ever had three separate captains before, so it’s covering new ground. But it is also an exciting time for us. We don’t know if it will be the most effective or efficient system but we’ll give it a try.”

Broad, whose first game will be on 25 June against Sri Lanka, added: “I’m hugely excited. I’m very focused on taking this role and putting everything into it and doing as much as I can.

“It’s my first ever captaincy role and I’m really looking forward to the opportunity.”