ODI series: England captain Alastair Cook confirms that he will not travel with the squad for the West Indies series in February

Captain will not be part of the squad for the one-day series next month

Agency
Sunday 26 January 2014 14:00 GMT
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It has been a tour to forget for Alastair Cook
It has been a tour to forget for Alastair Cook

England captain Alastair Cook has confirmed he will not lead the side during the three one-day matches in the West Indies in February and March.

Cook has opted to miss the tour, which also includes three Twenty20 fixtures, as England look towards World Twenty20 in Bangladesh in March and April.

Cook oversaw a 4-1 series defeat to Australia after losing the final game on Sunday by five runs in Adelaide. That followed an Ashes whitewash, and after the third one-day loss in Sydney Cook appeared to be considering his future as skipper in both formats.

He has since said he is "desperate" to stay on, but said for tactical reasons he would be giving the Caribbean tour a miss in order for 20-over captain Stuart Broad and limited-overs coach Ashley Giles to hone their preparations for the Bangladesh tournament.

Asked if he would be captain against the West Indies, Cook told Sky Sports: "No I won't be. The Twenty20 guys have got their World Cup in Bangladesh and I think we see it as a great six weeks for them to start building the team.

"They're never together very often and it gives them, and Broady and 'Gilo' time, to really have six weeks together to build for Bangladesh."

Asked when he would meet team director Andy Flower and new England managing director Paul Downton to discuss his future, Cook added: "I fly home on Monday, and when I get home over the next week or so I'm sure there will be meetings to have."

Cook had revealed earlier in the ODI series he was considering his future but said after the defeat in Adelaide that had been an emotional response.

On Sunday he said: "Emotionally it was a tough day for me towards the end. I just spoke very honestly and maybe I shouldn't have done because it's caused a lot of kerfuffle about it."

Asked if he had full confidence in Cook as one-day captain, Giles told Sky Sports: "Absolutely. We are standing here and we realistically could have won the series.

"We could have won it 3-2. That's not all down to the captain."

On the West Indies tour, Giles added: "The plan is we are playing three one-day games there but with the T20 World Cup we are probably going to pick a T20 squad which gives us a good preparation time running into Bangladesh. It's likely that Stuart Broad will captain that side."

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