ALL the talk is of who the skipper should be for the England one-day side - why don't they pick the side first?

I know that it is obvious to say copy the Aussies, but there is a good reason to do that - they are the best side in the world.

The talk has been predictably all about Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick, and they are rightly the main candidates.

However, to my mind it would be better to pick the best 11 one-day players first and then work out who has the potential to be a captain of that side.

I will give Nasser Hussain his due because on his resignation he made exactly that point and admitted that he didn't want to play one-day cricket.

Nasser has never been a very good one-day player, his selection for the side wasn't warranted and he was correct to ask why he should have been skipper.

There should be two different jobs because they are two different games and need a different approach.

In a test you can spend more time trying to shape a game with your tactics, while in one-day cricket it requires a more instinctive up on your toes kind of approach.

Simply you need to be able to make tough decisions quickly and have the contingency plans to react to any outcome quickly.

To sum it up Mike Brearley was a great Test captain because he was a huge influence over five days but he was never a one-day cricketer, and you need someone who can get the right response from his players quickly.

Looking at the prime candidates Trescothick is out of touch and really, in one-day terms, you are looking at the World Cup so you have to ask who will be in the frame in three or four years time.

I think the selectors should start thinking forward now and pick a skipper who will be at the right stage of his career in three or four years time and I would suggest Lancashire's 'Freddie' Flintoff, pictured, could be the man to do that job.

Wrong decision

WORLD Cup officials were wrong to rule against changing the day-night format for the second semi-final.

There have been enough factors upsetting the smooth running of the tournament, boycotted matches and no spare days for matches abandoned for rain, to allow another outside factor to influence the outcome of the competition.

Having played out in South Africa I can tell you that day-nighters are definitely biased to the side batting first.

We had all kind of troubles batting second in Cape Town and I am sure it will be the same for the team batting second in Durban on March 20.

We have already lost the West Indies from the competition because of New Zealand refusing to play in Nairobi and then having one game called off for rain, so it would be a shame that one of the best sides were to miss out purely because they lost the toss in their semi-final.