Following the announcement of 21-year-old Jacob Bethell as England's stand-in T20I captain for their tour of Ireland next month, Mark Butcher has questioned the decision as 'difficult to explain'.
England named their squads for their white-ball series' against South Africa and Ireland last week, the latter of which will be led by Bethell. The squad which will travel to Malahide will be missing key all-format personal, including full-time captain Harry Brook, who have been rested ahead of flying to Australia for the Ashes. Bethell will become the youngest player to captain England in any format, taking the record over from Monty Bowden, who first captained the side at the age of 23 in 1889.
Speaking on the decision to give Bethell temporary leadership of the T20I side, Mark Butcher, speaking on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast, said: "It's one of those ones that's quite difficult to explain, even to people like me, let alone people who have a passing interest in England's cricket teams. And therefore I don't really know what to make of it.
"It goes back to something that's pretty old school but I think it's still relevant, and that is England caps and captaining your country are prestigious things. To me it feels like there has to be an element of you having earned that right, in order to keep it as a meaningful thing... There hasn't really been any sense that this was a position or a gong which has been earned by performance or consistency of being in the team or any of those things... I'm always slightly skeptical of the idea that you hand these things out based on the promise of what might happen in the future."
Bethell has 29 international caps under his belt since making his debut for England last summer. He made his Test debut in New Zealand last December, cracking a series of impressive innings from No.3, before featuring in England's white-ball campaigns over the winter and the early part of this summer. His involvement in the IPL earlier this year, where he opened for RCB alongside Virat Kohli, ruled him out of England's first Test match of the summer against Zimbabwe. While he was part of England's Test squad for their series against India, he only made a playing XI for the final game at The Oval when Ben Stokes was ruled-out through injury.
His involvement in England squads has meant he's only played one Championship game for Warwickshire this season, and he will miss their final red-ball games of the season to play against South Africa and Ireland.
"He's played next to no cricket all summer. He’s 21 and he’s had an entire English summer where he has been fit and has played little to no cricket of any meaning whatsoever, and here he is as England’s youngest ever captain," said Butcher.
"Whether or not it was necessary for him to miss yet more red-ball cricket and captain the England side in Ireland, and quite frankly they've stripped out all the main players from that series anyway, with notable exceptions like Jordan Cox and Liam Livingstone – who only recently captained an England white-ball team on a tour of the West Indies. So, was it necessary for Jacob Bethell to take on this role and play in those games in the absence of more meaningful cricket, giving what’s coming up with the Ashes? I think there’s a very strong argument that that is absolutely the case yes."
'It shows a lack of respect to Ireland'
Butcher also labelled the squad England have selected for the series in Ireland as showing 'a lack of respect', with the number of key players absent.
"It shows a bit of a lack of respect for them [Ireland] and their cricket," said Butcher. "We're not in the business of making people feel good about themselves but it also says, 'this is a bit of a throwaway three matches that no one is really that interested in and we'll do what we jolly well like and not be too worried about whatever the consequences might be.'"
The final match against Ireland will take place on September 19, over two months before the start of the first Ashes Test in Australia.
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