Michael Vaughan Defends His Comments After Stuart Broad's Response

Michael Vaughan, on Saturday (June 2), defended his criticism of Stuart Broad and his teammates after the England pacer hits back at the former skipper following the conclusion of day one of the second Test at Headingley between England and Pakistan.

Following England’s nine-wicket drubbing against Pakistan at iconic Lord’s, Vaughan, on his BBC radio show, had opined that England should consider dropping Broad or James Anderson.

The Ashes-winning skipper Vaughan, under whom Broad had made his debut in 2007, felt dropping a senior player to bring an inexperienced one would shake England up from a perceived coziness. He had gone on to echo the same sentiments in his column for the United Kingdom-based The Telegraph.

It was not the first time, Vaughan had criticised Broad. During the recent Ashes series, he had slammed Broad when the fast-bowler was struggling for form.

Well, Broad did not take long to hit back at Vaughan. The right-arm pacer starred with the ball in the ongoing second Test, taking three for 38 as England bowled out the visitors for just 174.

After the day’s play, Broad did not mince his words as he said Vaughan’s criticism was “shot in the dark” because “he doesn’t know what the changing room is like”. The pacer had also revealed that he called Vaughan to express his disappointment.

Vaughan, however, does not feel his comments were harsh as he defended and stuck by them.

“We lambast sports people who come out with cliches, so it is good that Stuart has got it off his chest,” said Vaughan.

“A private conversation is a private conversation and it will stay between me and Stuart. The reason why I said they should consider it [dropping Broad] is that I felt the England Test team needed to ruffle a feather or two. It has been very comfortable for a long period of time and one of the options might have been to break up the senior bowling pair.

“I think the cricket fan out there wants to see England win. Want to see England play really good cricket and the reason I get frustrated is because of the amount of talent in that team. If you look at the names, the ability and the skill levels England have, and the performance levels just have not been to the standards we expect. We don’t want to criticize but we want to give them a prod every now and again,” he added.

Vaughan further said that Broad ‘s comments might be a tad premature.

“You’ve got to be careful when you choose the time to come out and attack which Stuart did last night,” Vaughan reckoned.

 

“They haven’t won the Test match yet. So the comments last night were geared as if they’ve won the game. He’s a senior member of the team and I just don’t think it was the right time to plan that attack. He should have played a straight bat to the questions. He probably went on one because it’s been building up,” he added.

Michael Vaughan made it clear that his comments were not only for England’s lacklustre performance at Lord’s but for their inconsistent performance in the past one year or so.

“I just look at performances and over the last year – they have lost eight Tests in 15. They played very poorly in the Ashes, lost in New Zealand, lost to a young West Indies side at Headingley last year. It wasn’t just Lord’s, it happened last summer too when they were bowled out twice in 91 overs at Trent Bridge and then responded brilliantly by playing really good Test match cricket in the next game at The Oval, and then again at Old Trafford,” he stated.

 

“I want to know why the England team generally – and it’s been this way for a number of years and I guess it was in my time as well – why is it in English sport that we have to criticize and get to that low point where the team come out and say we’re going to prove you all wrong. England were a different team yesterday. You could see that in the warm-ups, you could see that in the interviews. Why does it need a week of criticisms to get that response?,” he asserted.

 

“I keep hearing from people within this England camp that this team is in transition? How can it be in transition when you’ve got three of our greatest in the team. And then you add to [Alastair] Cook, [James] Anderson, [Stuart] Broad, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, fantastic cricketers. How can they be in transition? The transition will come when the senior three disappear. We expect more from the Test team and if we are putting them under pressure, deal with it. It’s international sport and that’s what they did yesterday,” he concluded.