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    England’s Ashes situation

    By Will 2 years ago, at the start of July Leave a comment on this post

    Michael’s out, but remains favourite. Fred is out too, but he is the second favourite. Andrew’s no one’s favourite, really, but stays in. This all sounds like something from the interminable Big Brother but in fact this is England’s captaincy nightmare.

    It’s hard to make head or tail of what has happened. Even yesterday, when Michael Vaughan was officially, finally ruled out of this winter’s Ashes series, there were rumblings from the ECB machine that “it’s really not that serious; we expect him back for the World Cup” and similar. And Flintoff? He is the stand-in captain and remains the favourite to replace Vaughan - when fit. When’s that? Who knows?

    You have to feel a bit for Andrew Strauss, the stand-in stand-in. The ship’s engine is broken, there are bloody great big holes letting in gallons of water; steer us towards safety if you would! The calamity England find themselves in is, conversely, quite a relief. At least now they (we) can start from scratch and build from here, without constant, confusing, ambiguous medical reports from every doctor and his dog.

    On similar lines, Kathy left a very interesting comment yesterday, making mention of Matthew Hoggard who, via Vaughan, was allowed to play in England A’s match against Pakistan (scorecard):

    Interesting comments for two reasons: Vaughan still ably managing the team from the sidelines, and Hoggard’s belief that current form has got nothing to do with temporary captainship.

    Perceptive thoughts, but I disagree that a team can be captained from the sidelines. It simply can’t. However, Hoggard’s belief that the temporary captaincy conundrum isn’t affecting England is perhaps indicitive of the confidence England still have within themselves. At least, I hope so.

    Worst of all, and I can’t explain why I say this, the recent events with Vaughan and all the other injuries have really put a dampener on what England achieved last summer. It has been made futile - at least, that’s the impression I get. All that hard work - for what? Half the team are broken; the replacements are mostly still in nappies and are understandably flapping. England won the Ashes in 2005; why do I get the distinct feeling that we’re back to square one again?

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    2 Responses to “England’s Ashes situation”

  • Kathy wrote:
    July 7th, 2006 at 11.26 am

    Will, I wasn’t suggesting the team could be captained from the sidelines — all I was pointing out was that even though Vaughan has been sidelined for months, and was in the middle of a rather fraught attempt at a comeback, his mind was still on the team and what would be best for the players. He was in the car with Hoggard and thinking that Hoggard needed a bit of match fitness and did something about it. He’s just a captain through and through and I’m so bloody upset he won’t be in Australia.

    Maybe Hoggard’s thoughts are just symptomatic of what a down-to-earth sensible guy Hoggard is.

  • Kathy wrote:
    July 8th, 2006 at 11.20 am

    I know what you mean about current circumstances putting a blight on one’s feelings about last year’s Ashes. I’ve just received the new “Hidden Ashes” DVD and it’s got some lovely stuff in it, but I also found it quite painful to watch. The fact that that team has never played together again is incredibly sad. The fact that Vaughan won’t be there to defend the Ashes, to plot and scheme and innovate, and run it with a cool calm head (and maybe even get some runs!) is also incredibly sad.

    I guess one of the things that makes sport appealing is that it is real live human drama, and it has the highs and lows of human drama. You never know what will happen round the corner. To revel to the utmost in last year’s Ashes win also means that you have to feel the pain of this past month’s turmoil. The pain is no fun though. Sometimes I feel like Colin Firth’s character in “Fever Pitch”. And this upcoming Ashes will not be the same to me without Vaughan as captain. Christ knows what he’s feeling. I just hope he’s not reading the Guardian with their “Dump Vaughan now” headlines.

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