Vaughan May Make An Appearance at an ODI

Vaughan
By Caroline
June 18 2006

England’s captain Michael Vaughan may make a surprising comeback in the latter stages of an ODI against Sri Lanka. Ed Joyce made a painful exit as he injured his ankle so the door is wide open for Vaughan to walk through it, but will he be back?

Ed Joyce is due to have another scan to determine what is wrong with his ankle as he made a painful exit in an ambulance at Thursdays defeat against Sri Lanka, so much so that selectors have been made to name a replacement for the next game against Sri Lanka and people are hoping that it may be Vaughan.

However all is not as it seems as coach Duncan Fletcher tells us. "We're constantly in touch with Michael and I'll be ringing him again in the next day or so just as I rang him two days ago,"

"It's all up to him. He's the individual who has got to say whether he's ready to play. We can't say he's ready to play, it's up to Michael to make that decision."

Will Vaughan be ready? Or are we just pushing him too far? Whatever the outcome I’m sure England cricket fans do not want to push Michael as it could conclude in further injury and may end his career, which could have happened this time round.

Chairman of selectors David Graveney explains, "His value to the England team as a cricketer, as a captain, as a person is immense, however, you want to play people in the best possible form and Michael Vaughan is quite right in saying he wants to return when people look at Michael Vaughan as a cricketer and are not worrying about how his knee is. I speak to him on a regular basis and we are not going to ring him every single hour of every single day to say 'How are you?' He knows the level of fitness that is required to be captain of England."

Vaughan, Andrew Flintoff who has had an ankle injury and James Anderson who has had problems with his back should all be back in a couple of months but Fletcher explains his strategy.

"The strategy is to have a look at a couple of players quickly now and establish the roles we want them to play in and whether they are capable of playing those roles."

I’m sure England fans everywhere wish Vaughan a safe return to international cricket, whether that’s this week or in a couple of months time, I’m sure we will soon find out.