'Cricket is not that important'- Vaughan

Michael Vaughan, the England captain, has said that the elation of beating Australia at Headingley had been short lived in the aftermath of the London bomb blasts that left at least 70 dead and over 700 injured. With the sporting fraternity obsessed with the Ashes, Vaughan underplayed the importance of the series in the light of Thursday's terrorist attacks. He said, "Cricket is not that important when you see those things. Normally we wouldn't have had the televisions on in the dressing-room, but we had to keep them on because there were people that were in London that we all know.

AFP also quoted Vaughan as saying: "We haven't tried to get too involved in it, but we are trying to put things in perspective and we played a game of cricket and there are far more important things in life than cricket."

The attacks occurred a day after London was awarded the 2012 Olympic Games, curtailing much of the celebrations. Vaughan shared the nation's excitement at the prospect of being host to the Olympics, and said, "We were thrilled for London getting the Olympics just the day before and I think it's one of the best things to happen to English sport for many years. Then we arrived at the ground to see those scenes in London and it put sport and life in general really into perspective."

He hoped that his team's success against Australia would alleviate some of the sorrow caused by the attacks. He said: "There's obviously a lot of unhappiness in London and around the country after what happened, but if our victory over Australia has made a few people happy then that's great."

As the NatWest Challenge moves to London for the last two games, authorities at Lord's and The Oval said that both matches would take place as scheduled, amid heightened security.