Adios, Michael

"I could just tell from his body language when the camera panned on him that something wasn't quite right. Watching him at Edgbaston last week I felt the same thing. I know him very well, because we've been through some hard times together as well as some very exciting ones, but he was never like this. It was as if he had lost the fight."
Vaughan's partner in many a crime, Duncan Fletcher, saw it coming

"I think he feels with this decision made he can now relax and enjoy his cricket again - and everybody plays better when he is enjoying himsef. I'm sure that we haven't heard the last of Michael Vaughan."
Tim Ambrose, England wicketkeeper, looks forward to a reunion

"The captain feels a little less pressure if he is performing well. There have been times when I have struggled and felt the pressure as a leader. To ask a lot of your players all the time when you're not performing well is a big thing."
Graeme Smith, whose innings was perhaps the straw that broke Vaughan's back, as it was back in 2003 with Nasser Hussain

"Vaughan should have waited. There is one Test match left in the current series. England are 2-0 down and cannot now get back on terms. But they can use the final match to restore a bit of the collective pride that went missing at Edgbaston on Saturday evening, and it was Vaughan's responsibility to help them achieve it."
The Guardian's Richard Williams is not impressed by Vaughan's timing

"In my view, Michael went too soon and should have waited until after the tour of India. I think he's still a terrific player, just one innings away from resurrecting his form. The timing is never right - it tends to be when you've lost a series. Pressure from outside had built up and obviously he'd reached the time to say 'enough is enough'."
Yorkishire team-mate Darren Gough has more belief in Vaughan than the man himself does

"Probably for the last time in his life, the stage belonged to Vaughan. He was emotional, humble, funny and honest as he reflected upon what he will realise in time to have been the greatest days of his professional life. He thanked his team, the back-room staff, the Professional Cricketers' Association, the fans and, most movingly of all, his family. No, Michael, thank you."
Michael Atherton in the Times does not forget his namesake's contributions in the frenzy around his resignation

"I take no pleasure in seeing Michael go. And I don't think anyone else should. He's a nice lad. He has done a fine job for England. But I think the captaincy, a lack of runs and loss of confidence have all got to him in the end. It's better to go now, with dignity, than just hang on."
Geoffrey Boycott is as clear-eyed as ever

"People sometimes forget the pressure that being England captain puts on your family and home life, especially when things are not going well. They would have been watching and reading lots of things to do with Michael, and after a while it is tough to take, so I think he has probably made the right decision."
Ian Botham has been there

"Vaughan has paid the price for an old malaise - the self-satisfaction of English cricket. It is a complacent culture, in which many, though not all, do enough to maintain their own position but rarely go the extra mile."
Simon Hughes in the Telegraph

"Perhaps he should have gone earlier, but proud men do not give in easily. The certainty is that it could go on no longer. It was time for someone else to carry the can."
Mike Selvey, writing in the Guardian

"If I had carried on another month it would have been a month wasted for the next man, Vaughan, and if he had hung on until after The Oval, that would have wasted a week when the next man could have been using it to settle in."
Nasser Hussain should know, for he too left during a series and in tears

"With Vaughan's departure we can be sure of only one thing: the legacy of that glorious summer of 2005 has now been well and truly squandered."
Jim White in the Telegraph mourns England's fall from grace