Michael Vaughan

[cully]

Taken from the BBC site, looks like Vaughan is struggling to make it back, this has major ramifications on the ashes this winter. his skippering of the poms in the last ashes was excellent, however with vaughan struggling, and freddie underperforming as a consequence of being burdened with the captaincy, with simon jones ruled out, with harmison having a history of not being a good tourist, australia are odds on favourites in my book.


New concerns have emerged about Michael Vaughan after soreness in his right knee prevented him fielding for Yorkshire, although he returned to bat.

The England captain has been working his way back after returning home early from the tour of India in February because of trouble with the same knee.

That came after he left the Pakistan tour to have surgery on it in December.

He was unable to field in Yorkshire's match with Sussex before lasting only four balls in his second innings.

England were hoping Vaughan might be able to play some part in the ongoing one-day series with Sri Lanka but that now looks unlikely.

The Yorkshire and England medical teams will meet early next week to decide the best course of action.


TMS VIEW
England may have to come to the conclusion that the career of their best captain in recent years may come to a premature end

FR
TMS: Have your say

More surgery has not been ruled out for Vaughan, who will miss Sunday's C&G Trophy game against Worcestershire and the opening Twenty20 game with Durham on Tuesday.

He has played in three Championship games for his county, including the current one against Sussex at Arundel, and two C&G Trophy games in the last month.

But he has also had to sit out several games as a precaution and must also be doubtful for the Test series against Pakistan, which starts on 13 July at Lord's.

[bandage]

Gutted for Vaughan – as I’ve said before his captaincy last summer was the best I’ve ever seen in any sport and in any era. What a leader of men that man is. It is feared now that he’ll be unable to ever play again which would be an absolute shame. As for Freddie; asking an all rounder who also fields in the slips to captain a side is blatantly too much. He’s trying to serve 4 masters when the most a player should be doing is 2 – in Freddie’s case batting and bowling. He sees it as a great honour to captain his country but the selectors need to seriously consider giving the captaincy to somebody else to allow Freddie to express himself in his own enigmatic and talismanic way without the additional burden of captaincy. This, however, is complicated by there being no real vice-captain to step into the role. Trescothick left the Winter tour due last November due to personal reasons and the selectors don’t really want to give him the captaincy again given this perceived lack of commitment. Strauss is currently leading the ODI team without any success so they look in a good bit of difficulty. Really need Harmison to step up and lead the attack like he did in the Caribbean in 2004 and much will rest on the brash shoulders of Kevin Pietersen. At the moment it is only his presence in the team that keeps me optimistic for England and Wales’ chances of retaining the Ashes.

[cully]

KP is now injured, am predicting a drubbing in australia. my only concern is how i'm going to keep my job going during the actual test series. last summer i had lunch and tea at the same time as the test match, it was comforting to know that i was sipping on my brew, freddie and warney were doing same. i reckon this ashes will fook up my body clock, but it'll be worth it.

am considering an ashes party in my new place of residence.

[bandage]

Ashes Party would be class.

It's easy if you think about it - there's 5 tests so that's a maximum of 25 days to live on Australian time. Each day's play will either start at 11.30pm or 12.30am finishing at about 7am or 8am. So just go to bed at 6pm when you get in from work, get up in time for the cricket, watch it all night, quick shower and then off to work again, come home, sleep, up for the cricket and repeat. It might be worth doing a dry run in advance and watching DVDs or Shane Warne all night so your body clock is prepared for the change.

Cannot fooking wait for this. All fixtures on the calendar by the way. Some of them are over the festive period so work won't be an issue anyway.

[bandage]

Vaughan's in for yet another knee operation - they say he''ll be out for 4-6 months so that puts him in doubt for the Ashes. A huge blow for England and Wales - I doubt he'll ever return the way things are going.

[cully]

i doubt he'll ever make it back either. it's a shame really, seemed like an innocuous injury originally and now looks to be career threatening, which is a surprise in this modern day of medicine.

what would be the essential ingredients for an ashes party.

Australian beer, seeing as they are the hosts.
pads, gloves and a bat, perhaps a helmet if brett lee is playing
a baggy green
a freddie england top, bandage you can bring yours
a barby
an obnoxious australian giving the poms shit
an annoying barmy army chanting pom


suggestions appreciated