A false shot from Vaughan

Michael Vaughan gave a long interview the other day to the Yorkshire Post. A couple of quotes were picked up as a news story, but the piece is worth reading in full. For a start, you discover where the interview took place: “at the England captain’s luxury £1m villa on Barbados”. Possibly the most glamorous location ever for a Yorkshire cricketer to talk to the local paper.

It’s also worth having a close look at Vaughan’s line on England’s walking wounded. Have England gambled, he is asked, by selecting a number of players for the Ashes who are suffering from injuries, and also by choosing Marcus Trescothick following his personal problems? “Absolutely not,” Vaughan replies. “I spoke to the selectors quite regularly about the squad and it was one of the easiest Ashes touring parties you could possibly pick. There weren't really any tough decisions and the selectors would not have taken any risks on fitness. They must be very, very confident because they would not take risks for such a big series, and although people will always have their views as to whether certain players should be included, the squad is right in my opinion.”

Vaughan is a shrewd character and an outstanding captain, but this is bland, unconvincing, inaccurate stuff. “One of the easiest Ashes touring parties you could possibly pick”: oh, come on. The senior pro is suffering from a stress-related illness.

“There weren’t really any tough decisions.” There what? Everybody knows there was at least one, the tour captaincy, which was settled so late that the eventual choice, Andrew Flintoff, had no hand in the selection of his team. As David Graveney, the chairman of the selectors, put it at the squad announcement: “We have had to make a very tough decision in choosing between Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Strauss for the captaincy.”

Vaughan’s line on the risks being taken is that they can’t be risks because the selectors “would not take risks for such a big series”. Well, they did last time England went to Australia: two of them – Flintoff and Darren Gough. Neither man played a Test, and the upshot was that there was a loud and lusty chorus of Never Again. This time, the selectors haven’t taken two risks: they’ve taken six. There may be good reasons for each one, but Vaughan hasn’t given any.

It’s only a quote, of course, and perhaps Vaughan is as rusty at giving interviews as he is with the bat. But he could have just fended the question off. Instead he came out with vapid assurances that insult the intelligence of his many fans.