An oddity for you. Just went to my local Starbucks in Barnes to pickup a Mocha, and heard either a Spaniard or an Italian talk about Michael Vaughan! I was in a rush, and so were they, so I didn’t intrude, but heard from them that he is out of this year’s Ashes. Quite bizarre. Got home, logged onto Cricinfo who (of course) had it first.
So that it, folks. After much speculation, Michael Vaughan is to have further knee surgery and will almost certainly miss this winter’s 2006-07 Ashes series. A bitter blow, but at least England now have something concrete on which to base their selections. A permanent captain, in both forms of the game, now must be decided upon. Andrew Flintoff cannot be the man and, to be honest, nor should Andrew Strauss. It’s been a tough one-day series for him, but I don’t think he has shown enough “kick arse” to warrant leading his country.
That’s why Vaughan was so good; laid back on the surface, yet ruthless, determined and fiercely proud underneath.
So: no Vaughan, no Giles, no Simon Jones and I would go so far as to say no Flintoff either as far bowling goes… it’s gonna be a really thin time for the Barmy Army – but at least I can save myself the cost of a subscription to Sky Sports, I suppose. It seems that this generation gave us all they had to give last year, and perhaps it is greedy of us to expect more.
I agree that not the least of the misery of the one-dayers against Sri Lanka has been Strauss’s listless captaincy. Of course Test Cricket is a different matter, but where do we go for a captain – Trescothick?
It may end up being an Ashes series where both batting lineups dominate. Australia looks like it will have the advantage of at least having its frontline attack available. But England did well against all but Warne last time around. Their batting will have to do well (and is more than capable of doing so) if they will be relying on Harmison and Hoggard with the ball.
As to the line-up of England’s injured, I say: it’s not over ’til it’s over, for any of them. How many times did we see the headline “Rooney out of World Cup”?
I vote Shane Warne as England captain. I think he’s more than capable of playing whilst captaining the opposing side, he’s just that kind of guy.
From a narrow minded, blind sighted Australian point of view, hooray. No matter how I look at it, with key players missing from an England squad and Australia’s youngsters doing better and better I can’t help but be happy. Although it would be interesting if England brought in Stuart Law.
I couldn’t really face watching the one-dayers – particularly when seeing who was pulling on the navy blue Admiral shirt. Doesn’t fill you much pride, hope or excitement. Who was that guy Brezhnev? And I thought Glen Chapple retired with Watkinson and Fairbrother…
On the plus-side I’ve missed Strauss’s “listless” captaincy. Hussain described Trescothick as ‘too nice’ to be England captain. Listless and nice are two qualities we don’t need in an England captain in an Ashes series in Australia. Let’s give it to Flintoff, and get someone to make him a bit mroe angry before November. He can retain the Ashes, win the World Cup and then collapse and retire. Price worth paying isn’t it?
How did England manage to actually qualify for the World Cup? I haven’t been paying close attention, but they seem to have lost every one-dayer they’ve played for a long time.
Can a team be disqualified from the World Cup on the basis of poor performance?
To give Strauss and the England one-day side their due, I don’t think 280-odd is an unworthy total to make, in anyone’s book, so the batting wasn’t too bad. And it’s hard to captain a side when your bowlers have no confidence and are leaking extras like the Titanic. England might nearly have won the other day if everything they bowled was legal. Being the one senior bowler seems to make Harmison jittery and the other bowlers just looked out of their depth.
And Sri Lanka, just a few months back, just scratched one win out of four in their one-day series against us Kiwis. Sides can turn around. People’s reactions can be too extreme. You have a bunch of players who are on a losing streak, and all they need to do is pick up the papers and read how useless they are, to undermine their confidence even further. (Fletcher should ban them from reading the papers.)
Which brings us back to Vaughan because it strikes me that it may have been a lot to do with him that the England test team kept their heads after their big loss at Lord’s last July, to turn things around in the remarkable way they did. Luck of course comes into it too — if McGrath hadn’t turned his ankle, it might have been different. Luck’s turned against England for the moment, but I don’t write them off.
Too gutted to vote. Can we not have him on the field as a non-batting, non-bowling captain much like David Hughes used to be for Lancashire?
On the plus-side Flintoff seems to strut around screaming like a Viking when he plays Australia, so there should be a bit of bite to the team if he’s captain. Against Australia the players should be able to rouse themselves.
No Vaughan no Ashes good people, England must find the nearest hyperbaric chamber and hibernate for the next six months. I cancelled a perfectly good family holiday in Queensland to watch two great teams lock horns in Melbourne on boxing day; i can not and will not settle for anything less!
it’s over to you England………..DO SOMETHING.
I IMPLORE YOU…….DO SOMETHING.
I’d like to imagine that if Vaughan’s international career is over, he’ll take over the captaincy of Yorkshire. Craig White’s on his last season, so there’s a vacancy for a dodgy-kneed captain with a good bat and some handy part-time bowling.
The captaincy? It’s absurd, but I think it would be amusing to give it to KP in the one-day game. He’s certainly got that ruthless streak, and a good understanding of bowling too.
I’d like to see KP bowl more – he could potentially be as useful as Sehwag has become recently.
Speaking of spinners, given Giles’ extended injury, will we see Monty or Dalrymple walking out for the first test against Pakistan?
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