Cricket: Lancashire Chief Calls Vaughan 'despicable'
The backlash has begun over Michael Vaughan's "pedalo-gate" comments, with Lancashire bosses most upset.
England's captain, Michael Vaughan, was vehemently criticized by Lancashire yesterday for his candid assertion that Andrew Flintoff's drunken capsizing of a pedalo on a Caribbean beach wrecked team morale and was a major factor in the disastrous World Cup campaign.
Vaughan's no-holds-barred assessment that the "Fredalo" incident left England under siege will be defended by some as entirely valid but Lancashire view it differently. Their emotional defence of Flintoff amounted to one of the most savage attacks on an England captain from within the game in English Test history.
Jim Cumbes, Lancashire's chief executive, could barely suppress his rage as he termed Vaughan's comments "despicable" and intimated that the England team, the captain among them, had gained MBEs on the back of Flintoff's efforts against Australia in the 2005 Ashes series.
"I think it's completely out of order, I think it's despicable, I think it stinks," he said. "Fred took stick in the early part of his career and he came back from that. He was a talisman in the Ashes series of 2005. You could almost say that Fred is responsible for 11 or so people getting gongs in that series - Michael Vaughan was amongst them as well.
"He went out to Australia, he was asked to captain the side, he was asked to lead the bowling, lead the batting - this fellow has given blood for England and I think it is appalling that he has been treated in this fashion.
"Fred knows that he stepped out of line. Everybody steps out of line from time to time. If you have got anything to say in a team situation you keep it in the dressing room, you don't blast it out across the airwaves or in the newspapers.
"We have a prime example up the road here - Alex Ferguson. Plenty of players have played badly for him over the years. The public don't know about it, but the players certainly know about it."
Born in Manchester but a Yorkshire player, Vaughan will now fear a hostile reception at Old Trafford tomorrow when he leads England in the third Test.
Vaughan's no-holds-barred assessment that the "Fredalo" incident left England under siege will be defended by some as entirely valid but Lancashire view it differently. Their emotional defence of Flintoff amounted to one of the most savage attacks on an England captain from within the game in English Test history.
Jim Cumbes, Lancashire's chief executive, could barely suppress his rage as he termed Vaughan's comments "despicable" and intimated that the England team, the captain among them, had gained MBEs on the back of Flintoff's efforts against Australia in the 2005 Ashes series.
"I think it's completely out of order, I think it's despicable, I think it stinks," he said. "Fred took stick in the early part of his career and he came back from that. He was a talisman in the Ashes series of 2005. You could almost say that Fred is responsible for 11 or so people getting gongs in that series - Michael Vaughan was amongst them as well.
"He went out to Australia, he was asked to captain the side, he was asked to lead the bowling, lead the batting - this fellow has given blood for England and I think it is appalling that he has been treated in this fashion.
"Fred knows that he stepped out of line. Everybody steps out of line from time to time. If you have got anything to say in a team situation you keep it in the dressing room, you don't blast it out across the airwaves or in the newspapers.
"We have a prime example up the road here - Alex Ferguson. Plenty of players have played badly for him over the years. The public don't know about it, but the players certainly know about it."
Born in Manchester but a Yorkshire player, Vaughan will now fear a hostile reception at Old Trafford tomorrow when he leads England in the third Test.
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