Michael Vaughan is sat down just outside Manchester, the city of his birth and whose motto Concilio Et Labore – ‘by wisdom and effort’ – and industrial past neatly sums up the attitude he wants English cricket to adopt in repairing the fractures caused by a chastening Ashes winter.
Vaughan is here to promote his brainchild state school competition, the Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup, featuring more than 1,100 teams and a final played on the hallowed turf of Lord’s this summer, but as one of the most outspoken critics of England’s implosion in Australia he also has plenty to say about the need for changes in attitude now that changes in personnel have been resisted.
He says greater wisdom is required when it comes to selection, picking the best performing players not simply the same ones, and more effort is needed in Brendon McCullum’s management, demanding more attention to detail in preparation for Test matches including players being allowed to bring along their own personal coaches.
With meritocracy on his mind, Vaughan also presents the case for Jimmy Anderson – one whose first steps in it began during an education at his local comprehensive – making an international comeback next summer, at the ripe old age of 45.
Anderson was pensioned off two summers ago with 704 Test victims to his name, as part of the planning for what turned out to be a disastrous 4-1 defeat to the Australians. But he would, Vaughan says, be a valid pick for the return series next summer if he retains the kind of form that has seen him start this season with 14 wickets at under 14 runs apiece for Lancashire, where he has been given the captaincy.
‘I think he’s bowling the best of anyone,’ Vaughan, who was Anderson’s captain in 21 of the fast bowler’s 188 Tests, tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘I’ve watched loads of him. We should never, ever put anyone on the scrapheap.
Michael Vaughan (right) is backing Jimmy Anderson (left) to make an Ashes return at the age of 45 next summer
Anderson took 76 wickets in 21 Tests under Vaughan’s leadership from 2003-08 – only Steve Harmison (133), Matthew Hoggard (123) and Andrew Flintoff (119) took more under Vaughan
‘I’m not just saying it for a headline, but because England have to win that 2027 Ashes series. Just say that they have three injuries and Jimmy’s still bowling 83-84mph. Are you telling me you wouldn’t throw him in? Of course you would.
‘Last winter, when Australia needed to win a game of cricket, they picked Michael Neser, and look what he did (15 wickets in three Tests at under 20). I know he’s 36 and he’s a lot younger in terms of age, but I’d say Neser’s body’s probably worse than Jimmy’s.’
In the short term, despite the post-Ashes review demanding an onus on County Championship form when it comes to selection for the first home Test of the year against New Zealand on June 4, he believes there is only one position up for grabs in a team he says possesses an abundance of talent but lacks direction.
And that position belongs to Zak Crawley, who has begun the summer with scores of 9, 20, 26 and 5 for Kent in Division Two.
‘He’s not had a flying start to the season,’ says Vaughan. ‘If he’d have come out and gone 100, 100, 100, yeah, you’d have had another look, but I think it’s now time to move on. If you want to be the best team in the world, your opening batter is not going to average 31 with five hundreds in 64 games. So, I think England have to look beyond that now.
‘What’s interesting to me is that players that have been mentioned before the start of this season as possible Test picks – Haseeb Hameed, Dom Sibley, James Coles at Sussex – have not knocked the door down. Yes, they might have had a little bit of bad fortune, but what I look for when players get touted for England is whether they then deliver for their county, because fundamentally you’re under a bit more pressure when the eyeballs are on you.
‘There’s still a few weeks to go, but you’ve got a four-horse race among the openers and I’m saying to Ben McKinney now, after his double hundred for Durham: Your nose is in front. He looks a talent. I like the way that he plays.
‘Asa Tribe, a player that interests me with the way that he gets over to the off-side and plays the safe game, working the ball to leg, is probably just behind him, then Hameed and Sibley a fair way back, but I can’t see any other opportunities unless they look for an English-style seamer like an Ollie Robinson or Sam Cook.’
Vaughan believes Zak Crawley’s place is the only one under threat in this England team – and was not helped by a run of low scores to start the season with Kent
Durham’s Ben McKinney is the latest candidate to replace Crawley – and he responded by smashing a brilliant 244 against Gloucestershire last week
Sam Cook (left) or Ollie Robinson could come into the England team to offer an ‘English-style’ seam option
Any overhaul, Vaughan argues, in a week that the ECB oddly created more noise about last winter – releasing an in-house interview in which captain Ben Stokes insisted he is ’95 per cent aligned’ with McCullum despite differences of opinion on tactical approach surfacing Down Under – should be focused on preparation, not personnel.
‘Fundamentally, they’ve got to get away from this ‘vibe’ coaching – I don’t see any sporting team get better by just turning up and having a vibe,’ Vaughan continues. ‘England hate people for saying that because they say that they do a lot of work, but they don’t do the same amount of work as some of the other sporting teams that I’ve witnessed.
‘The talent is there but talent can only get you to so far in any sport, so they need a little bit more dedication to really improve the players technically. Mentally, they’ve got to accept that when the pressure’s been on in the last few years of this regime, they haven’t done it. India at The Oval last year – failed. Australia in the winter – failed. World Cups to date – failed.
‘Because success for this England group should be winning. They’ve reached the last five semi-finals at Twenty20 World Cup. So, this coaching group has done no better than any other coaching group. You’ve got to have aspirations to be the best in the world and from what I’ve seen, you can’t say that the organisation of the team has been what you would say is high performance.
‘These past 22 years represent probably the most successful period in history for English men’s cricket. We’ve been used to winning Ashes series. We’ve been used to winning World Cups.
‘This regime came in on the back of an environment that was created through Covid. What Joe Root had to deal with as captain was tough, so when they first came to power, they were brilliant in freeing up the players.
‘Where leadership is clever is realising where you have to change. You look at all the great football managers, they change – either personnel, the way that they play, or someone in their backroom staff to bring in a little bit of new energy.
‘If I was playing the game now, I would have my own dedicated batting coach with me, like a golfer turning up to the Ryder Cup. And on a Tuesday or a Wednesday before the Test match starts, I’d want my coach there. Rob Key (the ECB’s director of men’s cricket) would be open to that, I think.
‘‘These past 22 years represent probably the most successful period in history for English men’s cricket. We’ve been used to winning Ashes series’
‘Fundamentally, they’ve got to get away from this ‘vibe’ coaching – I don’t see any sporting team get better by just turning up and having a vibe’
‘I don’t see Jamie Smith (left) getting down and dirty every morning for 30 minutes, catching balls. But I saw Australia’s Alex Carey (right) do that’
‘I would want my players in the best state of mind, technically and mentally, for the Thursday start and if that meant bringing in Alec Stewart to work with Jamie Smith, or Bruce French or Jack Russell, whoever, so be it.
‘Social media clips aren’t everything, but I see so many clips from counties of coaches drilling the players and there’s so much more going on. Again, they won’t like me for saying it, but when I watch England on a morning, I don’t see any of that. I don’t see Jamie Smith getting down and dirty every morning for 30 minutes, catching balls. But I saw Australia’s Alex Carey do that.
‘If a player wants to bat all day on a Tuesday, do you know what? Let that player bat all day on a Tuesday. As England coach, that’s what you’re there to provide.’
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