page_title: Mike Burns (cricketer)
section_title: Somerset captaincy
hierarchical_section_title: Mike Burns (cricketer) / Career / Somerset captaincy
caption_attribution_description: Jamie Cox watching at a training session at the en:Adelaide Oval
context_page_description: Michael Burns is an English first-class list cricket umpire and former first-class cricketer who played county cricket for Warwickshire and Somerset in a first-class career which spanned from 1992 until 2005. He also played Minor Counties cricket for Cumberland and Cornwall. An adaptable cricketer, he appeared for Cumberland and Warwickshire as a wicket-keeper, but when he moved to Somerset he developed into an aggressive batsman who bowled at medium-pace when needed.
  Burns started his cricket career with Cumberland in 1988, but moved to Warwickshire in late 1990. He struggled to break into the first team with his new county, and spent most of his time with the club playing in the second team. As a wicket-keeper, his opportunities were limited by the presence of Keith Piper, and he failed to make an impact as a batsman when he was given chances in the first team. He only started to play regularly for the county in 1996, but opted to move to Somerset the following year.
  For Somerset, Burns passed 1,000 first-class runs in a season twice, and was part of the team which won the 2001 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy.
context_section_description: Cox resigned the club captaincy at the end of the 2002 season, and Burns was named as his replacement; Wisden described him as a "dedicated, down-to-earth cricketer who hopes to lead by example from high in the order." In a preview of the 2003 season for the BBC, Simon Mann wrote that Somerset had the talent to improve and he predicted that an immediate promotion back to the first division of the County Championship was "a strong possibility." The season began in positive fashion for Burns; in a first-class match against Loughborough University he scored 83 runs in the first innings and was 118 not out in the second. He continued to score runs regularly, if not spectacularly, throughout the season, and passed 1,000 first-class runs for the second consecutive year. Ian Blackwell and Cox both reached the milestone as well for Somerset, but despite these individual achievements, the county struggled. Eight losses were suffered on the way to finishing third from bottom of the second division of the County Championship, and after one such result, a two-day loss against Northamptonshire in July, the club's chief executive sent a letter to ten members of the team warning them that they could be sacked. A few days later, against Durham, a second-innings total of 56 was the county's lowest score in a first-class match since 1970. Although Burns had a relatively successful season statistically—his 1,133 first-class runs were the most he scored in any season of his career, and his first-class average was just under 40—he offered to step down as Somerset captain, but when a suitable alternative could not be found, he continued in the position for 2004.
  The following season was another difficult one for both Burns and Somerset. Burns scored 733 first-class runs, but only passed 50 on five occasions, including a top score of 124 not out against Essex. Four wins late in the season pushed Somerset up to fourth in the second division of the County Championship, but the county were knocked out of the 2004 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy in the third round, and they finished eighth of ten in the second division of the totesport League. Their elimination from the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy came at the hands of Worcestershire; after Somerset had won the toss and Burns had chosen to bat, his side were bowled out for 95 runs, the tenth lowest List A total for the county. Burns was dismissed for a first-ball duck in the match, which Wisden reported was dominated by the "muscular hostility" of Andy Bichel, who took four wickets for Worcestershire. Both Burns and Somerset's first-team coach, Kevin Shine were criticised for the team's failures; Shine was reassigned as the county's academy director, while a committee of former captains was set up to assess the captaincy. On the recommendations of the group, composed of Roy Kerslake, Vic Marks and Brian Rose, Somerset signed the captain of the South Africa national cricket team, Graeme Smith, to lead them in 2005.
caption: Burns took over the Somerset captaincy from Australian Jamie Cox.
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