David Capel was England's nearly man who had the definitive impossible job when he came into an England side looking for the new Ian Botham in the mid-1980s, and after swimming confidently for a time, he soon sank. Quite simply, Capel was not good enough to justify his place with bat or ball, and averages of 15 and 50 from 15 Tests tell the story. He made a 98, at Karachi in 1987-88 but he also had 13 scores of 6 or less in 25 innings. His energetic medium-pace was pretty innocuous but he did have a distinguished rabbit: Viv Richards, who he dismissed three times. And he did play his part in one of England's most unlikely successes, as the most sedate of Graham Gooch's four-man seam attack in Jamaica in 1989-90.
He subsequently ran the academy at Northamptonshire and, at the end of the 2006 season, was appointed head coach of the county. He led them to their first appearance at Twenty20 finals day in 2009 and almost led them back to Division One of the County Championship in 2011. Northants led the table for most of the season but a major stutter in the final third of the year saw them pipped to promotion by Surrey by a single point. Capel was sacked three months into the 2012 season.