Previous national captains to resign or be sacked in disgrace

John Terry may have cried when he was stripped of the England football side’s captaincy by coach Fabio Capello on Friday but he can take some consolation that he was not the first and probably not the last national skipper to be punished in such a fashion. Here is a captain’s `Hall of Shame’:

CRICKET

Hansie Cronje

The `golden boy’ of South Africa’s post apartheid era was seen as the sport’s equivalent of rugby union’s World Cup winning skipper Francois Pienaar. Unlike Pienaar he never delivered the World Cup - a tied semi-final with Australia was the best he could do in 1999.

However, his reputation and life lay in tatters when Indian police unearthed wire taps linking him to an Indian betting syndicate about fixing matches in April 2000. He was sacked four days after the allegations were made and was later banned from the sport for life. He was to die aged 32 in suitably tragic circumstances when a private plane crashed on June 1, 2002.

His family and other supporters have tried to restore his image, but unlike Pienaar who has been immortalised in Clint Eastwood’s critically acclaimed film `Invictus’, a film made about him called `Hansie’ - the screenplay was written by his brother - has done little for him certainly on the international stage.

FOOTBALL

Roy Keane

The hot headed Irish footballer - perhaps the most driven and talented player the country has produced - who vowed to his then club manager at Manchester United Alex Ferguson that he wasn’t just going to the 2002 World Cup finals to compete but to win the tournament.

However, he didn’t even make it to the opening group game after a foul mouthed outburst at a team meeting aimed at coach Mick McCarthy.

The two had never got on even when they played for Ireland, McCarthy - a good and honest central defender in the old style - had once told off the much younger Keane for delaying the team bus for hours, a slight that the latter was never to forget. Keane, though, was also venting his spleen at what he saw as amateurish preparations for such a major tournament and that he laid squarely at the FAI’s feet.

Keane was sent home in disgrace after being stripped of the captaincy and replaced by Steve Staunton. Keane’s outburst was memorably summarised by one of those present, midfielder Matt Holland as `Keane leapt over the mark in a way that would have done Bob Beamon proud’. Keane has endured a troubled management career since retiring leaving Sunderland and the 38-year-old’s tenure at Championship side Ipswich Town has yielded little since he took over at the beginning of the season, indeed they are presently battling against relegation.

John Harkes

The seemingly squeaky clean American midfielder enjoyed a decent spell playing for then top tier side Sheffield Wednesday and was part of the side that reached both the League Cup and FA Cup finals in the same season, 1993, only to lose on both occasions to Arsenal. He was the logical choice to be United States captain - he was at the time named `captain for life’ by coach Steve Sampson - given he was one of the few to be playing or at least played top level football in Europe and was due to captain them at the 1998 World Cup finals in France.

However, he was dramatically not only stripped of the captaincy but also dropped from the squad before the finals with Sampson at the time citing the reason as being that Harkes was not prepared to get back and help out with defensive duties.

It was only earlier this month that a darker reason surfaced as former team-mate and leading striker Eric Wynalda alleged in an interview that Harkes had been having an affair with his wife, making it untenable for them to carry on playing on the same team.

Sampson supported Wynalda’s version of events. Harkes returned to the international scene after Sampson was sacked following a poor World Cup - they lost all three matches including a defeat to Iran. He retired from the national side in 2000 with 90 caps to his name and aged 42 is now a football expert on television.

RUGBY UNION

Lawrence Dallaglio

The legendary England and British and Irish Lions backrow forward - who knew how to cope with the spotlight having been part of his Roman Catholic public school Ampleforth Boys Choir that sang backing vocals to the Tina Turner hit single ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero’ - was seen as the right man for the job to captain England. However, newspaper revelations in 1999 about drugstaking, albeit a long time prior to his international career, indeed his supposed misdeeds came just a year after his sister Francesca drowned in the Marchioness pleasure boat sinking on the Thames (1989) could not save him and he was stripped of the captaincy and replaced by Martin Johnson.

Nevertheless Dallaglio continued to impress on the pitch and was a member of the side that dramatically won the 2003 World Cup. He was restored to the captaincy when Johnson stepped down in early 2004 but he himself retired from international rugby in 2004.

However, he changed his mind in 2005 and returned to the national side once again, playing in the 2007 World Cup where the defending champions unexpectedly reached the final. The 37-year-old is now a BBC pundit and heavily involved in charity work for several good causes.

PARIS, Sunday (AFP)