Stuart Broad: “I don’t see the vice-captaincy as particularly important in cricket really”

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Stuart Broad has insisted that having a vice-captain for the Ashes is not that important, especially since England have a number of senior players in the side.

Broad’s comments come in the midst of England’s search to find a new vice-captain after all-rounder Ben Stokes, who usually holds the leadership role, was withdrawn from the Ashes squad as he waits to hear whether he will be charged with actual bodily harm following an alleged street brawl outside a nightclub in Bristol.

Broad will no doubt be one of the frontrunners for the vice-captaincy position as he has previously captained England’s Twenty20 team. Alastair Cook and James Anderson are likely to be the other top candidates for the job.

“I don’t see the vice-captaincy as particularly important in cricket really. You have an amount of senior players who always have an input and you want to open everything to the whole group,” Broad told Sky Sports. “In cricket, the vice-captain literally takes over if the captain runs off the field and needs the toilet or something. The captain could run off and just say someone take over for an over.

“With the senior players we’ve got, everyone is having input into tactics and how we’re going. We’re always talking on the field so I don’t think it’s a particularly important role and in the group, it’s not even been talked about.”

England head coach Trevor Bayliss remained tight-lipped about who would replace Stokes, but admitted that three or four players are in the running.

“There’s probably three or four guys in the team who could do it – older guys who have plenty of experience and play that role anyway as leaders of the team,” he said.

The Ashes series between Australia and England gets underway on November 23 in Brisbane.