Vaughan to announce retirement
On Tuesday, Michael Vaughan is to announce his retirement. The whole world knows about it already, but Tuesday will apparantly bring the official rubber stamp.
This is the right decision. Rather than spending most of the summer talking about his very remote chances of an England recall and his lack of form over the last year, we can instead remember the good times and what made him one of the best batsmen to play for England in recent times.
Here are just three of them:
2002/3 in Australia. Vaughan scored three centuries, and 633 runs in the series. At this point he was the highest-rated batsman in test cricket.
166 v Australia at Manchester, 2005. Although this was the test that Ricky Ponting saved, in many ways it demonstrated that the tide had turned – the Australians celebrated as though they had won, and England knew that they were there for the taking. Vaughan’s first innings 166 set the tone.
2nd Test v India, Trent Bridge, 2002 – His innings of 197 enabled England to overhaul India’s first innings and reach a total of 617. In reply, Sachin Tendulkar was approaching his century when Vaughan, in the absence of a regular spinner in the England attack, produced the perfect off-break: away drift, pitching outside off and vicious turn to pass the inside-edge of Tendulkar’s bat and break the stumps.
There were many others, not least his captaincy during the period in 2004/5 when England were challenging Australia for the top-spot in the test rankings. Thanks for the memories, Michael.
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