England Captains as Cricket Commentators

What is the media's obsession with employing ex-England cricket captains? At the last count (i.e., the current Test series with South Africa), the following were involved:

Sky Sports

• Commentators: Ian Botham, David Gower and Bob Willis.
  
• Summariser (on commentary team): Nasser Hussain.
  
• Summarisers (in the UK studio): Graham Gooch and Alec Stewart.

Talk Sport Commentators: Chris Cowdrey and Mike Atherton.

BBC Five Live Summarisers for match reports (for last overseas series):* Mike Gatting and John Emburey (also appears from time to time on Sky).

Channel 9 (Australia) Commentator: Tony Greig.

BBC 5Live (for home matches only) Summariser: Geoff Boycott.

As far as I can tell, the only other people to have captained England in the last 30 years are as follows:

• Mike Brearley
  
• Mark Butcher**
  
• Michael Vaughan**
  
• Allan Lamb
  
• Adam Hollioake***
  
• Keith Fletcher

** still playing
*** only in ODIs, and still playing for Surrey

Oh, and as an aside, the following came from the BBC News web site - a quote from Alec Stewart talking about the domestic TV coverage of the cricket going to Sky:

Former England captain Alec Stewart, speaking on Tuesday, said: "Young girls and boys should be able to see cricket without having to pay for it.
"The ECB have to look at the whole picture. They may be getting a big cheque but, long-term, English cricket will suffer."

This morning, Alec Stewart was summarising for Sky.

As a second aside, there have been 75 captains of England, as follows:

• James Lillywhite jnr (1876/77)
  
• Lord Harris (1878/79 - 1884)
  
• A Shaw (1881/82)
  
• AN Hornby (1882 - 1884)
  
• Hon.IFW Bligh (1882/83)
  
• A Shrewsbury (1884/85 - 1886/87)
  
• AG Steel (1886 - 1888)
  
• WW Read (1887/88 - 1891/92)
  
• WG Grace (1888 - 1899)
  
• CA Smith (1888/89)
  
• MP Bowden (1888/89)
  
• AE Stoddart (1893 - 1897/98)
  
• Sir TC O’Brien (1895/96)
  
• Lord Hawke (1895/96 - 1898/99)
  
• AC MacLaren (1897/98 - 1909)
  
• PF Warner (1903/04 - 1905/06)
  
• Hon.FS Jackson (1905)
  
• RE Foster (1907)
  
• FL Fane (1907/08 - 1909/10)
  
• AO Jones (1907/08)
  
• HDG Leveson-Gower (1909/10)
  
• JWHT Douglas (1911/12 - 1924)
  
• CB Fry (1912)
  
• Hon.LH Tennyson (1921)
  
• FT Mann (1922/23)
  
• AER Gilligan (1924 - 1924/25)
  
• AW Carr (1926 - 1929)
  
• APF Chapman (1926 - 1930/31)
  
• RT Stanyforth (1927/28)
  
• GTS Stevens (1927/28)
  
• JC White (1928/29 - 1929)
  
• AHH Gilligan (1929/30)
  
• Hon.FSG Calthorpe (1929/30)
  
• RES Wyatt (1930 - 1935)
  
• DR Jardine (1931 - 1933/34)
  
• CF Walters (1934)
  
• GOB Allen (1936 - 1947/48)
  
• RWV Robins (1937)
  
• WR Hammond (1938 - 1946/47)
  
• NWD Yardley (1946/47 - 1950)
  
• K Cranston (1947/48)
  
• FG Mann (1948/49 - 1949)
  
• FR Brown (1949 - 1951)
  
• ND Howard (1951/52)
  
• DB Carr (1951/52)
  
• L Hutton (1952 - 1954/55)
  
• Rev.DS Sheppard (1954)
  
• PBH May (1955 - 1961)
  
• MC Cowdrey (1959 - 1968/69)
  
• ER Dexter (1961/62 - 1964)
  
• MJK Smith (1963/64 - 1966)
  
• DB Close (1966 - 1967)
  
• TW Graveney (1968)
  
• R Illingworth (1969 - 1973)
  
• AR Lewis (1972/73)
  
• MH Denness (1973/74 - 1975)
  
• JH Edrich (1974/75)
  
• AW Greig (1975 - 1976/77)
  
• JM Brearley (1977 - 1981)
  
• G Boycott (1977/78)
  
• IT Botham (1980 - 1981)
  
• KWR Fletcher (1981/82)
  
• RGD Willis (1982 - 1983/84)
  
• DI Gower (1982 - 1989)
  
• MW Gatting (1986 - 1988)
  
• JE Emburey (1988)
  
• CS Cowdrey (1988)
  
• GA Gooch (1988 - 1993)
  
• AJ Lamb (1989/90 - 1990/91)
  
• AJ Stewart (1992/93 - 2001)
  
• MA Atherton (1993 - 2001)
  
• N Hussain (1999 - 2003)
  
• MA Butcher (1999)
  
• MP Vaughan (2003 - 2004/05)
  
• ME Trescothick (2004)