Michael Vaughan's master race

No I am not talking about a team comprised of Manchester born Yorkshire players with dodgy knees and a wonderful cover drive, but headlines in the Daily Telegraph saying "Michael Vaughan calls for all-English England"seem to suggest that Vaughan has been wearing out his copy of Mein Kampf.

Vaughan makes a differentiation between Kevin Pietersen and the most recent South African born players to play for England; namely Jonathan Trott and Craig Kieswetter. He argues that "someone like Kevin Pietersen made the decision very early to come over to England and he learnt a lot of his cricket here" whilst Trott and Kieswetter both represented the South African under-19 side. I get the impression that Vaughan is not keen on Trott; who in his ghost-written autobiography claims he saw celebrating with the South Africans at Edgbaston after they had beaten England in what proved to be Vaughan's last game as skipper.

I wonder if the distinction he makes with KP is convenient given that Vaughan lavishes praise on Pietersen in the same book; admitting that he couldn't wait to get him in the side for the Ashes in 2005 following his spectacular introduction in the one-dayers in South Africa. Kieswetter too came to England early, even spending time at Millfield and has been at Somerset since he was 19, so I am not sure that Vaughan's argument washes here.

Where would Vaughan stop? Well his preference that he would like to see "in an ideal world, 11 complete Englishmen in the team" suggests that Andrew Strauss, Matt Prior and certainly Eoin Morgan would not make the cut either.

Vaughan is right to suggest that some of the South Africans coming to England do so to make money. But one can hardly blame them for that. Globalisation and the ensuing removal of restrictions to allow freer movement of labour means that this trend is set to continue. The ECB couldn't legislate against it even if they wanted to, because the UK is part of Europe and has to adhere to the labour laws of the EU.

I don't know the forum in which Vaughan made these comments and whether they have been taken out of context by the Daily Telegraph, who let's face it are probably keen to see an all English population in England, but I am surprised that someone as erudite as Vaughan has put himself in danger of being misconstrued. Nick Griffin will be lapping it up.

 

 

.

Comments

[Offcutter.wordpress.com]

I agree with his comments as a whole. However, my respect for him has diminished considerably, because he considers the case of Pietersen and Trott to be different.

There is absolutely no was in which their cases are different. Both Pietersen (Natal, Kwa Zulu Natal) and Trott (Boland, Western Province) have played for domestic sides and both came to England in order to pursue higher honours for England.

Both did it for their own benefit, so I don't see how KP is different from Trott. I supposed he has let his bias against Trott cloud his better judgement when writing this article!

On the whole, it was a rubbish article by MV! :@

[ThiruCumaran]

Ah, forgot to mention something yesterday. I remember reading, during England's tour of SA which concluded recently, that Pietersen actually played against the touring England side in 99/2000 in a tour match. Since MV was slated to make his test debut in that series, I'm pretty sure that he would've played in that match against Pietersen. I suppose MV wouldn't have noticed him then as KP was just an offie batting in the tail-end of the batting order! :D

[The Reverse Sweep]

Well spotted. MPV did indeed play in that game and even comments in his book about KP playing in this match

[The Reverse Sweep]

Yes, I am surprised that MPV chose to make a distinction between KP and Trott. Both as you say followed the same path. At the end of the day England has had a number of players (Smith, Lamb, Hick, DOlivera) who have been born in other countries and then come to play cricket for England. Its part of the modern world and the general trend of globalisation. It has not quite reached the extent of the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team who seem to take most of their players from Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.

[Bodyguard Title Song Katrina Salman]

I certainly agree with the point raised by Michael Vaughan.

[Aditya]

Vaughan is erudite?