"Good or bad, it's a fantastic job. If someone said you had your time again and you didn't have the captaincy - no way."
Friday 14 August 2020 17:18, UK
What makes a great international captain? Is it purely down to the number of wins and losses on their record – or is there more to it?
Sky Sports pundits Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain and Shane Warne - all of whom led their respective national teams - get down to the nuts and bolts of captaincy in our in-depth podcast, which you can watch in full on the video below.
The trio discuss the characteristics that make a successful skipper, reflecting on the highs and lows of leading a side and look back at some of the captains who inspired them.
As Nasser says: "Good or bad, it's a fantastic job. If someone said you had your time again and you didn't have the captaincy - no way."
BRAND OF CRICKET
Warne: "I don't think the percentages are that important, the win-loss ratio - I think it's the way the team plays.
"England have won their first ever World Cup under Eoin Morgan. I don't know what his win-loss ratio is but I know England are the best one-day side in the world because Morgan's got their players playing a great brand of cricket and you can tell they play for him and they trust him.
"It's the same in the Test match arena and as an individual player. People don't remember your stats - they remember 'did you change the game and deliver when your team needed you?'"
MAN-MANAGEMENT
Nasser: "I think a captain has to be true to himself. Even international cricketers, in that dressing-room now, when the coach and captain are talking and you've had an average day, your gut feeling will be 'is he talking about me?'
"So when you have those chats is important, when do you have those meetings after a bad day and what do you say?
"We judge captains on those little bits of tactical brilliance, but actually the words you say - what Eoin Morgan says to Jofra Archer at the end of his run in the Super Over - that small stuff can be just as important."
A 24/7 JOB
Warne: "A captain is not just out on the field. There are different parts to the captaincy - and at 8pm or 9pm, when you're sitting in your room, you're like the roadside assist.
"One of the players might say 'I want to have a chat' and you've got to be available all the time. I always believed personally that captaincy brought out the best in me, it made me think clearer.
"It takes you a bit of time to make sure everyone around you is OK and still concentrate on your own game.When your own game suffers, that's when it can affect your captaincy too because you're not as confident about trusting your gut feeling."
PRESSURE
Nasser: "It does get on top of you and you need good people you trust. There'd be people who tell you what you wanted to hear because you're the captain and there are people who would tell you the honest truth.
"That was the difference between being an England captain in our era and being Mark Taylor or Steve Waugh. If you're captain and you have (Glenn) McGrath one end and Warne the other, you are therefore winning more games and you're under less pressure.
"If you're losing a lot of games, the media will get on your case, your family become concerned about you and it's a tough job. But you still know it's a great job and you have to get through those periods."
USING THE X-FACTOR
Warne: "Captaincy should be able to get the best out of individuals. There are times when it's easy to throw the ball to Ben Stokes, but if someone or the team's not having a great day, how do you turn that around?
"That's why you want to have those X-factor players in your team that can inspire others. There's not many like an Andrew Flintoff, someone that can drag the team with him.
"The captain has to make sure he gets the best out of Andrew Flintoff all the time and allows him to be Andrew Flintoff, not somebody else. There are moments when a captain can win you the game through tactical nous but there are a lot of things that go outside that."
