Wimbledon Hockey Club’s new captain Ben Hawes has slammed the pressure piled on the nation’s sporting skippers.

The three-time Olympian has promised to bring his own captaincy philosophy to bear at Wimbledon, and it is a philosophy well grounded in serious experience.

The 34-year-old led Team GB to fifth place at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, and he has also skippered England, in an 11-year international career that ended in retirement in 2013.

Hawes believes that the role of skipper has evolved in modern sport, away from the all-encompassing role in some lower level sports to simply being a presence on the field of play.

“It winds me up seeing the amount of stick that Alistair Cook gets with the England cricket team,” he said.

“The whole way people go about captaincy in modern sport is wrong, it should not be on Cook’s shoulders to be the first guy who talks to the press or is involved in selection.

“I see a captain as being responsible for delivering what the coach wants on the field as opposed to shouldering that wider burden.”

He added: “The older you get you more you realise that captaincy is very much a necessity from a team point of view, but the actual role is not as all-encompassing as it used to be.

“The higher the level, the more it is just about being a leader on the pitch as opposed to other sports where it means much more.

“I am quite happy to be the person, but I don’t think it changes the way I approach games at Wimbledon.

“I have always led and vocal in that sense, it is just a bit more formal because I am wearing an armband.”

Aside from delivering on the field what the coach wants, Hawes knows there is another side to being a captain.

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He said: “Having captained England and GB, it is about decisions being made on the pitch, leading by example and knowing your team.

“Some people might need an arm round them and some might need a rocket, so it’s about knowing how certain people respond to feedback and how to get the best out of them in a match situation.”

Ironically, Wimbledon’s first win of the MHL Premier Division season, after back-to-back defeats, came last weekend when Hawes was unavailable for selection.

However, he is relaxed in the knowledge that his side still has players who can step up to the captain’s role.

“The more leaders we have the better, and Michael Hoare is a great example of someone who has grown into a leadership role with Wimbledon,” he said.

“We have some real experience in there too with Henry [Weir] and Phil [Roper], but they are young and they need to lead others by playing to their best.”