INTERNATIONAL CRICKET: FORMER England fast bowler Neil Foster believes the time is right for Alastair Cook to stand down as the national side’s one-day captain.

Foster is still confident that Cook can bounce back from his – and England’s – miserable winter in Australia. Cook leads England into their fourth one-day international in Perth tomorrow morning on the back of nine successive defeats in all formats of the game. And those results, coupled with Cook’s lack of form, has led him to consider his position as one-day skipper.

Foster, who played nearly 50 limited-overs matches for England during a successful career, feels Cook should quit as one-day captain, to concentrate on scoring runs. But the 51-year-old former Essex star still believes his county counterpart is the man to lead his country in the Test Match arena.

Foster said: “I don’t think Alastair’s the obvious one-day captain. “Having the added pressure of being captain and a player looking for runs isn’t helping him. “I think one of the main things we have to do is find a way of him scoring lots of runs for us.

“The collective form of the side isn’t helping Alastair either at the moment and it’s been an awful winter for England.

“When no-one in the team is scoring runs it makes scoring runs much harder as captain, because you want to lead from the front."

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