I think the FA wished I was white. I had the credibility, performance-wise, to be captain. I was consistently in the heart of the defence and I was a club captain early on my career.
I was captain of the pom-pom team, which was still dance, but we were athletes. We trained on the track and did workouts every single day after school.
As captain I enjoy the responsibility. Even when I didn't have the armband I was doing a lot outwith the club so it has been an easy transition.
Even when every Tom, Dick and Harry was calling for my head, I still felt I could get better at being captain.
But I was club captain at Leeds, club captain at Fulham. If you've got a bad attitude you're not getting those honours.
Media were never allowed into an Australian dressing room until I became skipper. I changed that and invited them in at the close of play each day, thereby confirming for many administrators they had appointed a madman as captain.
I think the toughest part for me was when Herschelle said that he obviously looked up to his Captain, and he felt if his Captain could do it, then so could he, and that to me was when it really struck home.
To be honest helps you a lot to not waste time. It's also the way I help the players most. It doesn't matter if it is the captain or the last reserve player, I try to be honest.
One of the important things as a captain or coach is knowing what's going on around you, and knowing the right thing to say at the right time.
I don't envisage I will be captain again, but for two England managers, Steve McClaren and Fabio Capello, I was their first choice and I'm proud of that.
Being the vice-captain, you see a lot of things on the field. You have to try and help the captain as much as you can and lead by example on the field. Small things like getting a run-out or taking a catch makes the other boys try and lift their standards. So yes, I do have an important role, even if I'm not captain.
My job is to help Virat in the field. He is the captain, and whenever he looks up around, I should be around to complement him and help him as much as I could.
When you are captain in any format, it definitely brings a lot of pressure on you and this is why its a big responsibility.
My mother would thump me sharply on the head with a thimble or a spoon if I became too noisy with the whistle when I was playing I was a steamboat captain. She had no sense of the dignity of command.
As a captain and as a player I wanted to lead the team well and score runs, because I know the team still depends on me very much.
By 1993, the Stone Roses had become this huge, beautiful cruise ship just floating about in the middle of nowhere with no captain.