"It was a leadership decision, made by me": John Sadler explains Northamptonshire captaincy furore

JAMES COYNE: Sadler's decision to strip Rossington of the captaincy after less than three years, during which he led Northants to the promotion which belatedly earns them a place in Division One this season, has since prompted him to move to Essex

Northamptonshire head coach John Sadler stands by his decision to remove Adam Rossington from the club captaincy less than two weeks out from the start of the season. 

The Cricketer understands that Rossington was called into a meeting with the Northants chief executive Ray Payne and head coach Sadler after matters came to a head between captain and coach on the pre-season tour of South Africa. 

Sadler's decision to strip Rossington of the captaincy after less than three years, during which he led Northants to the promotion which belatedly earns them a place in Division One this season, has since prompted the wicketkeeper/batsman to seek a loan move to Essex. 

While The Cricketer understands that Rossington had turned down a couple of contract extension offers, and he was in the last year of his current deal at Northampton, Sadler stressed that the decision to demote him was "a leadership decision". 

Sadler told The Cricketer: "First of all we wish Rosso well with his new venture. These things happen in sport. 

^{John Sadler is the new head coach at Northamptonshire (David Rogers/Getty Images)}

"It was a leadership decision, made by me. His decision to move came after the captaincy decision. We always planned for him being in our team. He just feels it's best for him to go on loan, and we respect that. Sport moves on very quickly and these guys have got a brilliant replacement in Lewis McManus. He’s given us a new dynamic already."

The reality in the modern game is that few players would stay with a county once they have been demoted in such a way.

Sadler replaced the long-serving David Ripley as head coach at the end of last season. While he did not wish to give the precise reasons for why he felt Rossington should be removed from the captaincy, he did say that he felt his replacement, 24-year-old wicketkeeper/batsman Ricardo Vasconcelos, was a better option. 

There will be fears that Vasconcelos, the youngest permanent Northants captain since Tubby Vials in 1911, could end up with too much on his plate, but Sadler says he is ready for the responsibility. 

"Yes [I do think he is a better option]. Ricardo has got some brilliant attributes. He's very humble. He's got brilliant morals, brilliant ethics. He's got a good cricket brain and he's at the stage of his career where the leadership here thought he was ready for more responsibility and could bring some good leadership to the group."

Vasconcelos confirmed that he will seek to open the batting in the Championship where possible, but that McManus, who is currently on loan from Hampshire, will keep wicket in the longer format. 

It seems imperative – both for the high-stakes decision made by Sadler to install a new, young captain, and for Northants' chances of survival in Division One – that the team make a strong start to the Championship season over the tranche of spring matches. And while Vasconcelos is contracted at Northants until 2024 – the same year he completes his qualification for England – he is understood to have a buy-out clause which kicks in at the end of this season.

^{Adam Rossington has left Northamptonshire for Essex}

Northants would have preferred for any loan deal for Rossington to have been to a side in Division Two, but Essex have come in for him until the end of the season, and the clubs have agreed he will not play against his current employers in any competition. It seems unlikely that he will immediately take the gloves off Essex wicketkeeper Adam Wheater. 

While the decision looks unfortunate in terms of its timing and execution – in the club's initial statement last week that Rossington was "unavailable for selection" there was no mention of the undoubtedly positive work he had done in taking on the captaincy mid-season in 2019 and leading the team to promotion – it does appear that Sadler has driven important changes behind the scenes to improve preparation for players and staff. 

Northants are a club popular among players and opposition for the friendly atmosphere, but there is a sense that being one of the smaller operations among the 18 counties has had its shortcomings too. 

Over the winter Northants – almost debt-free after a financial restructure a few years ago – have employed a new cricket operations manager, psychologist, batting coach, physio and analyst, while formalising Graeme White as a standalone 2nd XI coach. 

This followed an extended debrief held by the incoming head coach at the end of last season in which players were encouraged to air their views on how the club could improve. 

Sadler has said that there has been "a slight change in attitude over fitness" as that aspect of the game was emphasised before Christmas. 

"There was a lot of good things that go on here," explains Sadler. "The main thing for me here was the coaching set-up, giving role clarity to people behind the scenes. There was always going to be some slight change. 

"We did have clarity before, but with different people coming in it was really important to make sure people had clarity with what they were doing. And it was only right to make sure that Graeme was the 2nd XI coach, and make it a bit more formal. He can run it as he sees fit. It's really important the second team have as much support as the first team. That role is one of the most important in the entire club, because they're the youngsters coming through who need that guidance.  

"From a performance perspective I felt it was very important to invest in the practice facilities, with hybrid pitches. That will enable us to have better practice – bat vs ball more often. We've still got the bowling green cages on one side of the ground but you can't get a full run-up in there. 

^{Ricardo Vaconcelos succeeds Rossington as Northamptonshire captain (David Rogers/Getty Images)}

"We always had a net on the square and a net on the bowling green, but as a coach you could only ever see 50 per cent of the practice, so all together as one is a massive upgrade."

The hope is that this behind-the-scenes work will lead to an uptick in on-field performance as Northants embark on their first season in Division One since 2014. The fact they have never stayed up in three previous attempts possibly underlines that some change was needed for them to stand a chance of survival, while also rejuvenate their white-ball cricket. 

No Northants player has passed 1,000 first-class runs since Ben Duckett in 2016, and with Rossington departed now only Vasconcelos averages above 35 through his career. The general pattern of Division One is that it requires more hundreds and more big totals to win games. 

Sadler, a former county batsman himself, and the new batting coach Ben Smith will have work to do to help the current intake bank the hundreds which will allow Northants to dictate games in Division One. 

Encouragingly, the New Zealand batsman Will Young has just scored 224 runs in three ODIs against the Netherlands, and is expected to be available for Northants' second Championship game, as will be the Australian seamer Matt Kelly. 

"The players are always trying to score as many runs as they can," says Sadler. "Will Young coming in overseas will bolster the top of the order and give us that level of class and experience. It's another senior player coming in. 

"We're very confident with the level of skill here. The competition for places is high, which is always a good place to be. We're here to test ourselves against the best. There's never going to be an easy game or an easy session – that's the relentlessness of the first division. Every single session for the full four days is high intensity and we've got to be ready to match that. I want us to be brave and put other teams under pressure. 

"The skills are there with the players we've got; we just need players to crack on a little bit. Just because we've got a psychologist coming in, he's not going to wave a magic wand and everyone score a hundred every game. If life was that easy we'd all be playing for England. It's a longer-term investment for the side, starting to develop those relationships. 

^{Lewis McManus has joined on loan (David Rogers/Getty Images)}

"There's no pressure for anybody to go and work with him, but I think over time more and more people will use him. He's there from both a performance and a welfare perspective. I think he'll be great."

While many have concluded that the demands of white-ball strokeplay and intent is the reason for a consequent drop-off in Championship runs, Sadler also emphasises the additional skills that short-format cricket has added to the first-class game. He says striking the balance will be the key for Northants, who have had to prioritise white-ball cricket due to the financial incentive both for the players and the club. 

"I don't think it's down solely to white-ball cricket. It's part of the reason. Society is instant now. Ask me a question about rocket science and I'll tell you an answer, because I can Google it! Back in yesteryear it was generally more slower and drawn out. So it does reflect society a bit. 

"But also the white-ball skills players have developed have brought another side to the red-ball game, with run-chases, targets, taking bowlers on and different options. The old-school war of attrition mentality you don't see so much now. 

"We just have to get the balance right – there'll be moments where we have to soak up some pressure, and there'll be moments to attack. It's about reading the game in the moment."

Sadler sounds like a man who grasps many of Northants' challenges – but the harsh nature of professional sport is that many out there will judge his captaincy call on results first and foremost. 

Related Topics

• Adam Rossington saga at Northamptonshire develops as wicketkeeper moves to Essex