Cricket: Change of Heart Vaughan Backs Split Captaincy

Michael Vaughan insisted last night that he is the right man to make England's split captaincy work as he embarked on a month-long return to the county ranks with Yorkshire, but admitted that success for whoever succeeds him as captain of the one-day team could mean "the end of MV".

Speaking after England had completed a 3-0 series victory over West Indies with a seven-wicket win in the fourth Test, Vaughan explained: "I know I said the split captaincy wouldn't work but if it's going to work it will do with someone like me. I'm pretty chilled, I captain in a different manner to a lot of people and I'm very committed to continuing as the Test captain as long as the team want me. I don't have any worries about the decision I've made. I'm very confident it can work with me and the new captain but if he comes in and does a magnificent job, it's the end of MV."

Vaughan said he did not expect to be named on Friday in the squad for the one-day matches against West Indies. "A new captain would find it very difficult captaining me a week after I'd captained him in a Test," he said. "He deserves a little bit of time getting his authority over and the best thing for the team is for me not to play for a while. If my body's right and I'm scoring runs in the winter or next year, who's to say I won't come back. But I'll need to play very well because my one-day record's not that good."

Vaughan would not be drawn on the identity of his successor but revealed he had initially made up his mind to quit the one-day captaincy while in the Caribbean for the World Cup. Once back in England he was persuaded to change his mind after consulting friends and confidants, only to reverse his decision soon after when he realised he would not be around for the 2011 World Cup.

His next concern as captain of England will be the fitness of Steve Harmison, who has been diagnosed with a "non-serious hernia" and will require surgery at a date to be decided. Harmison has been named in the Durham squad for today's Friends Provident Trophy semi-final here against Essex but England will need to decide quickly if they want to operate now or wait until the end of the Test series against India in the second week of August.

Since Harmison has retired from one-day international cricket, that would give him plenty of time to recuperate before England's next Test series, in Sri Lanka in December, but an immediate operation could rule him out of the three games against India. "Hopefully I'll play as long as I possibly can before an operation," said Harmison. "If I can get through to the end of the summer, that'll be great. Ideally, I don't want to miss any Test matches but I want to be able to bowl at 90mph, not 80mph."