Here is a quiz question. Mike Gatting, a much-respected captain of England, led them on 23 occasions, but how many games did he win? Ten? More? Fewer? The answer, incredibly, is two. It is just that they happened to be in Brisbane and Melbourne in the same series and England, as a result, won the Ashes. The retention or otherwise of that tiny urn is, it seems, the sole benchmark against which England measures its international captains.

So Mike Atherton, who has now presided over two and a bit unsuccessful campaigns, is deemed a failure and, yesterday, the knee-jerk clamour for his head began in earnest.

He has been accused of not smiling, of laughing too much, of not firing the imagination of the team, of surliness with the media, of strategic naivete and tactical incompetence and by one former selector of being among the worse captains in 50 years. Not bad for the longest serving leader England has ever had.

Now there is no question that, tactically, Atherton has taken time to grow into the job while strategy is something developed collectively beforehand. Besides which, Atherton's style is by example: ask the members of his team whether there is respect for the man and his method.

After a most promising start, this has been a poor summer for England. But how much of it has been Atherton's fault. Well, he has not made the runs we might have expected, so perhaps the example has not been there. But he is not alone in a lack of runs and that, had England been successful, would not have been an issue. Ask Mark Taylor.

More relevant is the fact that England have been beaten by a superior technical side with players - Steve Waugh, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Ian Healy - whose competitive edge, honed in the Australian system, can raise their game virtually on demand to a level beyond that of most Englishmen.

Atherton cannot make Devon Malcolm bowl straight, cure John Crawley's weakness down the legside or put some fire in Robert Croft's belly when he is faced with a bowler above medium pace. He cannot spell out to Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe or Alec Stewart the difference between a positive attitude and one that is foolhardy. They've played enough cricket to know, for goodness sake.

Atherton is sensitive to the climate of opinion, but one hopes he will not be rushed into doing anything rash. Certainly there would be little to gain from a new captain at The Oval. Nor probably for the winter Test series in the Caribbean. For a start, credible alternatives are not exactly rushing to announce themselves.