J.T. can Kiss Goodbye to the Captaincy. By Andrew Walker.

John Terry must be the cornerstone of England’s World Cup 2010 challenge. In light of recent scandals, it cannot be as captain…

Bad boy captains don’t sit well with sporting authorities. Just ask Shane Warne. Aside from being arguably the most skilful bowler in the history of cricket, Warne was blessed with a quite brilliant cricketing brain. Perfect captaincy material…until he stepped off the park. A string of off-the-field indiscretions made Cricket Australia reticent to have Warne in a position of authority.

The England football captaincy is viewed with similar magnitude to leading the baggy greens. It requires a character who is whiter than the white kits with three lions on the chest. When Fabio Capello took over, JT seemed a wholly reasonable choice to lead his side into a World Cup campaign. Inspirational leader, world class centre back, committed husband and even named Father of the Year. How that has changed now.

Terry was already on the ropes after the News of the World broke a story about his unofficial £10,000 stadium tour. Now his alleged affair – with, of all people, the fiancée of an England teammate – surely makes his captaincy position untenable. For the FA to continue with Terry would be tant amount to an endorsement of his alleged antics.

You can argue whether personal affairs (literally!) should affect team matters, but in this case they certainly do.

Assuming he goes, who will fill the embarrassing void?

Rio’s injury problems call his claims into question. Lampard leads by example on the pitch and is seen as a model professional. However, in light of his acrimonious split from Elen Rives, his appointment would surely be butchered by the press. That leaves Steven Gerrard to finally prove that he can inspire his England teammates the way he has for Liverpool for the past decade.