"It's pretty humbling, isn't it? For an old fisherman and surfer in Queensland, who now and then plays a bit of cricket." Matthew Hayden is overwhelmed at being Usain Bolt's favourite cricketer Aug 21, 2008
The fact is that Vaughan’s place in the side ought to be under scrutiny. Seventy-four one-day matches have brought him 15 half-centuries and not one hundred. Indeed he has scored only two limited-overs centuries in his professional life. For a player of his obvious calibre it suggests he has not come to terms with adapting his Test-match game to the demands of one-day cricket. He is following in a line of underachieving England one-day captains, with Mike Atherton, Alec Stewart and Nasser Hussain registering only seven hundreds in more than 300 matches. Atherton’s average of 35 is the best, Vaughan’s 28 the worst. Had they not been captain only Stewart, who has four of the hundreds and was the wicketkeeper, ought to have kept his place. Moreover Vaughan, by the standards demanded of the one-day game at the pace it is played now, is a modest ground fielder and unreliable catcher. There is not even evidence that he is the same dynamic leader in this form of the game that he is in Tests.
My gut reaction would be: no. I would rather see the one day squad as a breaking ground for new talent and a different one day captain would enable the next captain to learn/hone some skills.
It is hard for any aspiring batsmen to feel that one place is not given on talent. There’s no shame in not playing one dayers, it is a different beast. I would rather see MV as a top test batsman rahter than a top ODI batsmen.
Interestingly, Vaughan’a test average has dropped since he took over the captaincy.
The Captain is much more than a player. He is the leader, motivator. If not Vaughan then who? We have seen how Trescothick or Strauss led the men (not very good). The moment another viable captain is found, then it’s bye bye Vaughan (remember Ganguly?).
Full respect to Vaughan as a Test captain - he has excellent man-management skills but I feel he has not earned his place in the ODIs. He is not a OD player.
Yet given his recent Test form … no, let’s not go there. This is a norm situation. All captains lose it a bit when they take on the main role. It’s traditional. It gives the fans something to moan about. This is why I particularly hate the phrase “a captain’s innings” - which basically means that player X returns to the form he had before the captaincy!
Vaughan and Co have done so well so far in Tests by doing their homework well. Somehow, this has really never worked for England in the one-dayers. Beats me why. Much as I admire the bloke, would nevertheless not be unhappy to see Micheal out of the one-day squad.
Should Vaughan try to become “something else”? I’d compare Vaughan with Dravid. Both’re the typical examples of the classical batsman, high elbow etc. etc.
Dravid struggled in one-dayers and found himself frequently out of the side while inferior players masquerading as all-rounders kept him on the periphery. But given that he wanted to be part of the one-day unit and India were finding it tough to find a replacement for Mongia as keeper and because he’d kept in a few under-15 games (!!), he volunteered to keep, perhaps as a last resort to be part of the one-day side.
It did wonders for him. He transformed his batting and I wrote briefly about it a couple of years ago after he’d batted superbly in the end stages of an innings. Perhaps he was forced to reinvent himself. Remember, this was the same chap who scored one run in twenty odd balls against _Bangladesh_ in 1997!
Maybe Vaughan should do something similar. I’m sure he can’t keep worse than Geraint Jones Maybe he should bowl a lot more often. But that’d be tough with a wonky knee.
ahh its been a long time since my last visit here. G’day everyone! There are others who could be doing a more affective job than vaughan in the one day side right? i know it’s tough with him being the captain, but for the good of the side he needs to go. You can’t keep him in there thinking/hoping his game will improve with the reasoning that a player with a simuliar style in dravid came quite good at the format. There’s a strong chance he will never be an acomplished one day batsman. If he is to improve he can do it at 1st class leval and then work his way back up. From what i’ve seen his inclusion is hurting the England side.
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Maybe he should bowl a lot more often. But that’d be tough with a wonky knee.