Monday 6 February 2017 11:26, UK
And so Alastair Cook has called time on his England captaincy career after a record 59 Tests as skipper.
He surpassed Michael Atherton's previous record of 54 games in charge, and while that is still some way short of Graeme Smith's record 109 Tests leading South Africa, it is still a notable achievement.
On England's triumphant tour of India in 2012 Cook scored three hundreds in his first five innings, and more than a half of England's total runs were scored when Cook was at the crease over the course of that series. In the recent 4-0 defeat that percentage was down to 25 per cent - one of the key reasons why England lost.
Some players have thrived on captaincy - Graham Gooch being a classic example. Gooch averaged 58.72 in his 34 Tests when captaining England, highlighted by his memorable 333 against India at Lord's in 1990 - one of his 11 centuries when in charge. When he was in the ranks, that average dropped to 35.93 with nine centuries in 84 Tests.
Michael Vaughan was England's premier batsman with an average of more than fifty in Test cricket when he took the reins, but he relatively struggled when combining the role of captain and run-scorer and averaged just 16.75 in his last five matches in charge:
Perhaps unsurprisingly for someone who just seems to keep rolling along, captaincy didn't really affect Cook's batting at all. He started in a blaze of glory, setting a record by striking centuries in his first five matches as captain - against Bangladesh in 2010, standing in for Andrew Strauss - and India in 2012, but his overall record is remarkably similar:
Michael Atherton won 13 of his 54 matches in charge, losing 21 and drawing 20. He was unfortunate to have 15 Ashes Tests against a very strong Australian side in that mix - he won four and lost nine of those matches. By contrast, Cook has won two Ashes series as captain and only lost one, but has a 6-7 losing record thanks to the 5-0 thrashing in Australia in 2013-14.
Overall, Cook won 24 of his Tests in charge, good enough for joint-second place for England behind Michael Vaughan's 26 victories. He lost 22, with the Chennai defeat pushing him ahead of Atherton for the England lead. The other 13 Tests he led ended in draws.
Looking more closely, Cook won the toss 28 times (47 per cent), choosing to bat 19 times and to bowl nine times, and lost the toss 31 times. Atherton was even more unlucky, winning just 23 of his 54 tosses (43 per cent).
In all, 26 captains have led their side at least 40 Test matches. Recent England captains seem to be habitually unlucky with the toss. Nasser Hussain ranks 25th on that list with a success rate of just 42 per cent, Atherton's 43 per cent is only just above him, with Michael Vaughan on 45 per cent.
Andrew Strauss somewhat bucked the trend with a success rate of 54 per cent and top of the pile is England's leader in the 1950s and 1960s, Peter May, who won an astounding 66 per cent of his tosses (27 out of 41).
Maybe times are a changing. Cook elected to bowl nine times, which equalled Strauss' England record. In contrast, May chose to bat 25 times and bowl only twice, despite having the likes of Trueman, Statham, Bailey, Laker and Lock to call on. Ray Illingworth only bowled once in his 15 won tosses in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Home series against South Africa spelled the end of his three predecessors in charge (Hussain in 2003, Vaughan in 2008 and Strauss in 2012) but there will be a new man in charge when the Proteas visit next summer. However, with his appetite for runs still as strong as ever, there is every chance that he will be striding out to bat when England try to defend their series victory won so memorably in South Africa twelve months ago.
A year is indeed a long time in cricket!
