England should make Jimmy Anderson vice-captain of the Test team.

I have nothing against Alastair Cook, who is the official deputy, but he is an opening batsman just like Andrew Strauss.

I have always had the view that when the skipper of a team is a batsman, his deputy should be the senior bowler in the side.

Then, the captain gets a different slant on what is going on in the match.

I remember when I played for Lancashire, our skipper Jack Bond always used to ask Peter Lever what he thought.

And it was something that stuck in my mind, so when I was captain and thinking about putting the opposition in first, I always went to my senior bowler to ask what he thought. It makes sense.

Jimmy, from Burnley, may be a shy lad, but he has decisive views on how the game should be played and is always chatting to his fellow bowlers at the end of their run ups.

He has very good cricket nous and has said himself one day he would fancy a crack at being England skipper.

But for some reason, the England hierarchy don’t like to give the captaincy to fast bowlers.

And I don’t know why, because on the county circuit it happens, just look at Glen Chapple at Lancashire.

It has been a fairly quiet start to the summer for Jimmy and I don’t think he will be too happy with his form personally so far. He took three wickets against Bangladesh last Thursday, but he should be doing that against them. However, he conceded a fair few.

I think not being picked in the World Twenty20 side really hit him, he was visibly shocked when it happened.

From being the leading strike bowler to not playing has hit his confidence, and he is someone who needs to be bowling on a regular basis.

IT is great to see Lancashire and Yorkshire battling it out at the top of the County Championship, and what a run-in we have in store.

It has always been said that when the two Roses sides are strong, then the England team are strong.

And these two will be scrapping to beat each other to the title because, boy, there will be some bragging rights there if one of them pips the other.

And nowhere more so than in the committee rooms. Believe me, they will be chatting away even now saying they must finish above them from the other side of the Pennines at all costs!

And the fact Lancashire and Yorkshire are both in the top three of Division One is in marked contrast to what’s happening down south. Surrey and Middlesex – two supposedly powerhouses of the county game – and both in the bottom three of Division Two.