In Michael Vaughan, England cricket have lost a goldmine that could have turned their fortunes

In Michael Vaughan, England cricket have lost a goldmine that could have turned their fortunes

Michael Vaughan is out of the race to become England’s Director of Cricket, and by the look of things former captain Andrew Strauss is all set to take up the position. Devarchit Varma explains what England will lose with Vaughan not being in charge of their cricket team.

If Sourav Ganguly is the one credited to have brought about revolutionary changes in Indian cricket, Michael Vaughan should be considered to have done the same for England. England seemed to be content with what they had achieved and done on the cricket field under Nasser Hussain, but Vaughan took them to newer highs, earning them back the Ashes in 2005 and proving to the world that they were ready to launch themselves to different orbit. With Jonathan Trott’s retirement, will England finally select proper opening partner for Alastair Cook in Tests?

Andrew Strauss succeeded Vaughan. He not only took England cricket notch further, but to the heights they never imagined were achievable in the dark days of 1990s. England owe a lot to these two men — the highlights being their Ashes win in 2005 and  Down Under after 24 years in 2010-11 as well as reaching the pinnacle of the ICC Test Rankings — which was result of hard work and determination of the men aptly let by both Vaughan and Strauss. Jonathan Trott: A No.3 specialist who let pressure get better of him

With these two leaders not being around, England have been plummeting everyday and the situation is worsening. There is no direction, the leadership seems to be ailing severely and off-field issues have taken centre stage to such magnitude that England will need men of true characters to emerge strong. Geoff Boycott fears Andrew Strauss’s new role won’t change England’s fortunes

Both Vaughan and Strauss are excellent leaders in their individual capacities, but for many reasons, the former wins the battle when it comes to choosing one of them. Vaughan, an excellent batsman of his generation and an astute leader, was the better choice for the job of Director of Cricket for more than one reason — which would have only helped England cricket going ahead.

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Vaughan has arguably been the best supporter and critic of England in the past couple of years. There have been others like Andrew Flintoff, who has more than once stupefied us all with consistently going overboard with praise on the current England side. Time and again Flintoff has proven how astonishingly far some in English cricket are away from reality.

The issues that ail England today are for all to see, and there will not be many who would be unaware. But far from what is the truth, Flintoff’s assessments have not only been hilarious but have shown what kind of men they need going ahead.

To understand why Vaughan was the best man for the job, one does not need to read much, just going through the former skipper’s Twitter feed would suffice. An extremely passionate character, Vaughan is never wrong: he never backs away from saying what is true, what makes sense and what is good for England cricket.

And then, I doubt there is any former cricketer or captain who uses expletives as freely as Vaughan does on Twitter when things are not going right for their team.

Where Vaughan wins over Strauss is the passion which he has. Certainly, this does not imply that Strauss is a lesser man, but the world loves the heroes who defy all odds and emerge winners. Vaughan is one of them. To lead a team to series win (Ashes 2005) against a side full of nigh-invincible players (Australian team circa 2005) was astonishing, and it showed the true character of the man.

To add to that, England won five consecutive Test series at home under Vaughan. To end the years of mediocrity and sowing seeds of success is something which Vaughan did, and the future teams launched them further from that platform.

On the other hand, taking away nothing from what Strauss has achieved, it is a fact that he took over a system which had already been set up, having surpassed the years of testing and rebuilding, and guided it further. Strauss revelled in a machinery that was functioning at its might, and he surely did well to keep the wheels rolling for England.

The present state of English cricket calls for strong characters who will do what is needed. Vaughan’s passion would only have helped him to take actions for the betterment, but he is brave enough to take strong decisions which England need to at present.

Strauss’ appointment will provide the incumbent skipper Alastair Cook a comfort zone. Cook and Strauss were excellent partners on the field but that does not guarantee overall success. Strauss’ appointment could also make Cook a little complacent, as he would be dealing with a familiar character. Cook has been getting things wrong of late in terms of decision-making and selection, and his former opening partner coming on board does not guarantee these will be addressed.

Also, the drastic changes that England fans seek in their cricket set-up in order to end the misery would not happen as the familiar faces will take charge.

Vaughan pulled out from the race because there were differences in perceptions and viewpoints, and he had been quite vocal about the present system’s functioning. Had Vaughan taken up the job, England would surely have had some interesting time on and off the field.

(Devarchit Varma is a reporter with CricketCountry. He can be followed on Twitter @Devarchit)