Harry Brook was named England’s white-ball cricket captain earlier this week and has snubbed the chance to play in the Indian Premier League to focus on his new duties
Harry Brook slipped into the captain’s stripes and promised he would always put England ahead of raking in franchise millions. Under slate-grey skies at Headingley, Brook was unveiled as England’s new white-ball captain.
He also explained why he passed up a £550,000 deal to play for Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League. In a reassuring first address from the officers’ mess, 26-year-old Brook was not playing patriot games for the cameras.
He had relinquished his IPL Bollywood treasure long before England managing director Rob Key informed him he was the chosen successor following Jos Buttler’s resignation at the Champions Trophy washout in February.
Brook said: “This is my priority. England is the way forward for me and franchise cricket can almost take a step back for little while. At the end of the day I enjoy playing cricket for England more than anything else.
“So to lose a little bit of money here and there, I’d take that any day to play for England. I won’t be playing any franchise cricket in the near future and I’ll be prioritising England and whatever games we have with them.”
READ MORE: Australia cricket star retires aged 27 – ‘I don’t want to risk more damage to my brain’READ MORE: England sent Ben Stokes succession plan as legend shares Harry Brook fear
Although Brook has been banned for two years anyway by the IPL for pulling out of his contract two years running, the lines of communication between Delhi and Leeds appear to have been blurred.
“They haven’t told me,” he shrugged. “But if I do get banned, fair play. That’s the rules they put in place, but I’m completely committed to playing cricket for England.”
Brook was given the nod after the Lord’s think tank wisely opted against overloading Ben Stokes with the one-day captaincy following the Test skipper’s two serious hamstring injuries in the space of six months.
Stokes will, however, remain under consideration as a rank-and-file player in white-ball cricket, with Brook confirming: “With the (hectic) schedule, he’s not going to be available all the time. But he’s one of the best players in the world, so we’d be stupid to turn a blind eye to him.”
Brook expressed sympathy for his predecessor Buttler, whose golden aura as a Twenty20 world cup winner in 2022 evaporated in three consecutive poor outcomes at global tournaments.
The rampaging Yorkshire batsman, who unfurled a monster triple Test hundred against Pakistan last October, said: “I think the schedule has been a nightmare, not just internationals but so many franchise leagues out there.
“It’s tough to play in everything that you want to play in and it was hard on Jos. I think he didn’t really have the best players at all times.”
Brook averaged 78 deputising for the injured Buttler as captain in last September’s one-day series against Australia, including his maiden ODI hundred at Durham.
Back in the ranks, he has scored only 188 runs in 11 innings at 17.09 in white-ball games for England in 2025, which suggests he will relish the responsibility of leading from the front.
He said: “Just because I’m captain, I’m not going to stop working as hard – I’ll probably work even harder now. I know I’ve got to improve certain parts of my game, trying to get better and be the best player in the world.
“As a captain I’m going to be myself – be relaxed, be calm, try and have a lot of fun and enjoy it. If you play cricket for England, we’re all living that dream.
“As a 10-year-old looking at yourself now, you’d be absolutely buzzing and over the moon. You’ve got to try to create that environment in the changing room, remember that you’re doing a job a hell of a lot of people would want to be doing.”
Brook’s first series in charge will be against West Indies at the end of May. Before that, he expects to play “one or two” county games for Yorkshire to tune up for the one-off Test against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge next month.
