Good week for...

Kevin Pietersen

Who says the revolution will not be televised? As Michael Vaughan was delivering his resignation address in Loughborough, Sky Sports News were running a yellow ticker along the bottom of the screen naming KP as his successor. Thanks for the memories Vaughany, but you are yesterday's news before you've opened your mouth.

And so to the new man. It certainly represents a change of heart from the selectors. Pietersen has previously been considered too immature to bat at three; in May Peter Moores said that a captain must have experience; and only last month a 30-man Champions Trophy squad was named without even a temporary skipper while Paul Collingwood was suspended. How have their minds travelled from uncertainty over KP's ODI vice-captaincy credentials to this One Supreme Leader routine?

The logical choice to me would have been Andrew Strauss as Test captain with Pietersen as his deputy and one-day leader, spreading the burden and - crucially - the risk of giving one unknown quantity such power. However, let's not get drawn into the equivocal 'on the one hand this, on the other hand that' arguments that have been everywhere this week.

There are as many good reasons for choosing Pietersen as for not doing so, and if he truly appreciates the size of the challenge he has taken on then he deserves the opportunity more than anyone; if Strauss and Alastair Cook wanted it so badly they ought to have scored more runs.

Perhaps most interesting about the appointment is the impact it will have on Pietersen: successful or not in the role, his full-time international career could be over at the age of 30.

Consider this. The five biggest challenges for the England captain are all spelled out over the next two and a half years: T20 WC and Ashes in England '09; tour of South Africa '09/10; tour of Australia '10/11; 2011 World Cup.

If he is successful in these - not winning them all, but credible challenges for world titles and serious performances away from home as well as regaining the Ashes - then there will be no more worlds to conquer. It is difficult to believe that any man could match Vaughan and Nasser Hussain's five-year stints in the era of three international teams and extra-curricular T20 tournaments, especially when the carrot to keep ploughing on is 30 months of NatWest series and Champions Trophies.

And if he is not successful? Then it could all end in tears rather sooner. We saw in Australia '06/07 that Pietersen is not always a willing workhorse if he feels his team-mates cannot match his application and talent. Since hardly anyone does, this sets England up for a fall. Those five events will all mean a huge amount to Pietersen the competitor and Pietersen the brand. If he feels let down by those around him then he will not hide the fact, at least in the dressing room. He will not be able to lead for long if he is unwilling to take the blame for others' failings, perhaps his biggest weakness for the role.

Is it far-fetched that his full-time international career would be over at 30? Pietersen plays for England because until last year international cricket was the only way to become a top player and top earner. That is no longer the case. If the IPL, Stanford tournaments and Champions League continue to mushroom then Pietersen can earn plenty more money outside of England than in it. Moreover, it will be on his own terms rather than the ability of, say, Liam Plunkett to put the ball on a good length to Michael Clarke on day one at the MCG.

Once finished in captaincy he will no doubt be asked back into the ranks. But will he want to go, at least full-time? Certainly the idea of him foregoing a $2million IPL deal to face New Zealand, as he did this year, is ridiculous.

Even if the ICC break the habit of a lifetime, rise from their deep leather armchairs and synchronise the domestic and international calendars then this will leave KP with a 365-day cricket schedule. At the age of 30, with a young family and after two years' constant dueling with the multi-headed beast of the English press and public, who would have the stomach for such a workload?

Fifty-over cricket, if still breathing, will offer nothing to KP, who must have realised long ago that his best chance of holding a World Cup winner's medal is to get Warney drunk and sneak into his trophy room. The chance to play in another Ashes or T20 world championship will appeal to a cricketer of his character and pedigree, but that too will only be on his terms.

Quite simply, England need Pietersen more than Pietersen needs England. His appointment as captain spells this out in sky-high letters - and poses some serious worries about what happens next.

Bad week for...

County cricket hacks

With Mark Ramprakash becoming the 25th person to score 100 first-class centuries, there is a real danger that county circuit journalists will now have to talk about something else. For instance, the cricket being played in 17 other counties (16 of whom have a better record than Surrey this season).

Still, like a spurned lover running alongside a departing steam locomotive, the 'national' media were determined to give their hero a fitting send-off. 'Ramps in hundred club at last!' they fawned, all bidding in the auction to elevate the former England man the furthest above his real station.

In this vein a special mention must go to Christopher Lyles in the Observer, who took the craven sycophancy to new and altogether farcical highs with his claim that: "Two Test centuries in 52 appearances is surely the saddest cricket statistic of all."

Two: the number of Test centuries in four appearances by Barry Richards before the international sporting boycott of South Africa ended his international career.

Two: the number of ten-wicket hauls by England's Hedley Verity before World War II ended his international career.

Two: the number of minutes Sachin Tendulkar's innings lasted in the 2003 World Cup final, the only major final he ever played in.

Thousands of cricketers have failed to fulfil their cricket destiny, to a greater or lesser extent through their own shortcomings. To place Ramprakash at the top of this list through some myopic belief that he has been cruelly denied by the Gods is absurd.

By all means admire the technical finery and undeniable dedication it takes to reach this landmark. Finishing eighth on a list in such exalted company is clearly an achievement of some substance. But it is simply wrong to argue, as his fans continue to do, that he is a great cricketer or deserving of great sympathy.

Ramprakash's long-time friend and colleague Mark Butcher took a different line in a salutary column in Monday's Guardian, suggesting that Ramps never really enjoyed Test cricket and this might help explain his failure to bridge the gap.

Indeed it might, but it would also disqualify Ramprakash from consideration as a serious player. How many Australians who failed to make the international grade are lauded as national heroes for their Sheffield Shield efforts? The idea is ridiculous.

Another contemporary player conspicuously lacking in fibre, Mark Lathwell, famously retired from the professional game at 30 because he much preferred hitting centuries in the Devon league followed by eight pints of scrumpy and a game of darts.

This is a perfectly legitimate way to spend your life - but it does rather disqualify you from comparison with the world's best players. Ramprakash's comfort zone may be at a higher level than Lathwell's but the principle and the verdict must be the same.

Peter May