Vaughan out; Flintoff captain
What was I saying about this team being in reverse? No sooner was Michael Vaughan back in the team after being out through injury, he is again back out of the team through injury - apparently he’s torn his hamstring. Now, I know that “tearing a hamstring” tends to sound considerably worse than it really is and nowadays modern physiotherapy practices can have him up and dancing in no time at all, but in this instance he won’t be fit for this Friday’s match against Australia and England have renamed Andrew Flintoff as captain. Once again I’m struggling to comprehend the decision of the selection panel. It seems the decision was made more to to not hurt Flintoff’s feelings other than anything else. He has already demonstrated that a) he’s a rubbish captain and b) as captain his own performances suffer and so, it seemed like a no-brainer that the captaincy would go to Andrew Strauss.
Having said that, it seemed like a no-brainer that Monty Panesar would start in the Ashes and we all know what happened there.
It seems like this (pointless) “trophy” is the perfect venue for England to get a bit of practice and maybe experiment a little ahead of the World Cup. It would be great to see the likes of Tremlett and Broad get some bowling practice and allow some of the newbies to the squad some time at the crease. They’ve done that with Paul Nixon behind the stumps, even though so far he’s had something of a shocker. It seems obvious to do the same with the captaincy. And at the very least they should dump Vaughan for good, the man is too much of an injury risk now.
Tags: Commonwealth-Bank-Trophy, England, flintoff, One-Day-cricket, Quick-Singles, strauss, vaughan, World-Cup-2007Related Stories
POSTED IN: Cricket
2 opinions for Vaughan out; Flintoff captain
Omar
Jan 18, 2007 at 4:11 am
I was curious to know what the English bloggers think about this decision. I found your blog through various other people’s. Hope you don’t mind if I link you! Please feel free to do the same if you’re interested in my writing.
So why in the world are the selectors afraid to ‘hurt’ Flintoff? Is that just a rumor? I feel like I have read it all too often now. He is a poor captain. If Flintoff can’t realize it himself, then why don’t the selectors see it?
Matt Thornton
Jan 18, 2007 at 10:58 am
Hi Omar, thanks for the comment, and yes, please… link away! Flintoff is England’s Mr Cricket. He is the epitomy of English cricket at the moment and it seems natural that all those concerned want to protect him a little.
Which I think is wrong. Fred is a big burly man from Lancashire and he could do without the kid gloves treatment. He probably knows in his heart that so far he has not been great as captain, but his determination to succeed is getting the better of him. And that’s not a bad thing, after all he hasn’t been captain long and he did start with possibly the hardest challenge out there. He deserves a fair crack of the whip. HOWEVER, he doesn’t look like a natural captain and needs to be able to hold his hands up and say so.
But of course, we never see what goes on behind closed doors so we won’t really know what the real story is.
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