Vaughan advises Yorkshire to protect England players

Michael Vaughan has issued a severe warning to his former club Yorkshire over the way they manage their England players in the squad.

England’s Ashes-winning captain in 2005 revealed his disappointment over Matthew Hoggard’s recent exit from the county.

The former England swing bowler now has to look for another county after Yorkshire claimed Hoggard had rejected a good contract offer from them during last season.

Hoggard then publicly stated his release was due to financial reasons and has recently held talks with Leicestershire.

Vaughan told BBC Radio Leeds: “The Hoggy situation is sad. He is a Yorkshire lad. The fans love him and he should still be playing for Yorkshire.

“Matthew will now have to finish his career at another county, which is a shame, but a lot of ex-England players seem to.  

“Yorkshire have to get used to managing their star players. They’ve not done it well in the past and that must change.”

Vaughan believes the situation is not a new one at Headingley and has been going on for at least a decade.

He added: “Over the last ten or fifteen years, or even further back, Yorkshire have not managed them brilliantly and that is something that has to change.” 

It would not be fair for us to comment on this before Yorkshire say their piece but I think a greater concern, which Vaughan has also pointed out, is the number of Kolpak players joining the English domestic game.

For England’s future it is vital young cricketers get the chance to play for their county and develop their game instead of Kolpak players coming in and providing counties with the chance of short-term success on the field.

It was announced last week the ECB had won a legal case over the rights to prevent masses of future Kolpak players joing the county circuit. This could be seen as good news and will hopefully encourage counties to  breed their younger players into the first-eleven sides.

On Michael Vaughan, with his recent comments and a new book out, it seems he is made for a career in the media instead of the coaching side of the game. Let’s just wait and see what the future holds for him. Can’t wait to read his new book!!!

Pakistan outclass coachless New Zealand to take series lead

Shahid Afridi and Kamran Akmal set up a thumbing ODI win against New Zealand in the series opening match at Abu Dhabi yesterday. 

Afridi’s 70 and Akmal’s quick-fire 67 guided Pakistan to a comanding 287 – 9 after the ‘home’ side won the toss and chose to bat.

Opening batsman Khalid Latif also played his part with a well crafted 62, which enabled the fireworks later in the innings.

New Zealand, playing their first match since the resignation of coach Andy Moles, never really looked like chasing their 288 target.

The loss of Brendan McCullum early on hit the Black Caps hard as wickets thereafter regularly fell and New Zealnd couldn’t get any partnerships together.

Aaron Redmond (52), skipper Daniel Vettori (38) and McCullum’s 21 were the only highlights in their innings as they crashed to 149 all out. Every other batsman failed to get into double-figures.

Umar Gul, Abdul Razzak, Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ijmal all took two wickets each as Pakistan romped to victory by 138 runs.

New Zealand will hope to make a serious improvement in Friday’s second ODI. Pakistan just need one more victory to take the three match series.

The On-Drive’s Track of the Day

We are going a bit more serious today after yesterday’s ‘Snooker Loopy’ episode. Today I am going back to Oasis – one of my favourite bands. In April I gave you ‘Some Might Say’ and today I give you the brilliant record ‘Little By Little’. Hope you enjoy this one.

Great track. See you guys tomorrow. Take care.

This is Nigel Slater signing off.