James Anderson: Michael Vaughan left me ‘alone and isolated’

Michael Vaughan is widely regarded as one of the fine English skippers ever, but James Anderson has a different take on this. Recalling the sour memories of his past, the right-arm pacer slammed Vaughan for leaving him ‘alone and isolated’, adding that the
former skipper lacked the ability to talk to his players.

Vaughan led England to an outstanding Ashes victory in 2005. It was England’s first win over Australia in 18 years, and Vaughan collected plenty of praise for his wonderful show. Anderson, who failed to earn a place in the team for that series, revealed
that Vaughan left him alone when he needed support from his side.

Writing in his autobiography, the 30-year-old pacer, who is an important part of the English bowling attack, talked about his relation with Vaughan and Nasser Hussain, another former captain.

"My relationship with Nasser was good on and off the field. The same could be said of my relationship with Michael Vaughan, captain during my early England years, since his retirement. Unfortunately, despite our cordiality now, I didn’t enjoy Vaughan as
a captain,” Anderson said.

He added, "I actually felt alone and isolated when I most needed support. Prime example of that was my recall for the fourth Test against South Africa at the Wanderers in 2005.”

"I had spent the first three Tests on tour out of favour. My tour was one big net, and because I had been so far removed from selection, I wasn’t even thinking about playing. When preferred to Simon Jones, I was underprepared. It was five months since my
last first-class action. I didn’t bowl very well.”

“Although I started okay as first change, it wasn’t long before I began dragging the ball down short and wide. I got clattered everywhere and was soon short of confidence. Vaughan asked: ‘What’s up, mate? Radar gone?’ ‘Yeah, I think it has,’ I said, desperate
for some backing. All I received was a pat between the shoulder blades and an instruction to ‘keep going’."

Anderson was not reluctant to take credit away from Vaughan, saying that there were so many great cricketers in his side that it automatically started producing good results. He insisted that the right-hander was as good a captain as others made out.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=32394

Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Sep 10 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry