Image courtesy of: The Sun
Vaughan was appalled by the number of domestic Twenty20 matches being played
Former England captain Michael Vaughan has announced that he wants to “punch” the country’s cricket administrators “in the face” over the unbelievable number of domestic Twenty20 games being played during the historic Ashes series.
Vaughan, who captained England to victory during the 2005 Ashes series, noted that “every single player in the country should be playing four-day cricket now” so that current skipper Alastair Cook and his men have the best chance of retaining the coveted urn.
“I get sick and tired of talking about scheduling but this is the biggest thing that happens in this country, the Ashes series,” he said. “How our schedulers have not been able to produce a round of four-day championship matches leading into an Ashes series is beyond me.
“If I could get any answer from an administrator telling me it’s worthwhile us playing Twenty20 now, England playing Essex — and then I think Sussex play in a four-day game starting on Monday in the middle of Twenty20 — I’d punch them in the face. Because they are wrong. Every single county should be playing four-day cricket this week.”
Vaughan applauded the England squad for playing a four-day game instead of a Twenty20 ahead of their first Ashes Test against Australia.
“England players would be better suited playing a real competitive county match under pressure than they would have been playing Essex,” Vaughan added. “England did the right thing because of the scheduling. They thought, ‘We can’t have the lads playing Twenty20 cricket leading into an Ashes series, we’d better create our own game’, so they had to create something.
“I would point the finger at the administrators who come up with the system of our scheduling. What happens if we get five injuries in the next week? And we are picking guys that have played Twenty20 cricket — it is ridiculous. England are a good team and I think they have enough to beat Australia whatever happens now but you have got to have the best and most professional system and things like that have got to be better.”
Responding to Vaughan’s outburst, an England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) spokesman told the Daily Telegraph: “Scheduling isn’t about one week. It’s about the whole series and the whole summer and we think we’ve got that right.”