Vaughan Tells Selectors to Stop Gambling and Stick With Proven Players

Michael Vaughan will attempt to restate his authority as England captain before the Edgbaston Test by pressing the selectors to avoid the type of left-field choice that saw Darren Pattinson called up for the Headingley Test and to restate their faith in known and established players.

Less than 24 hours after England's 10-wicket defeat by South Africa in the second Test, Hugh Morris, the managing director of the international team, summoned the selectors yesterday to an emergency meeting at Lord's. Morris, who has the ultimate authority to hire and fire England captains and coaches as well as to lay down guidelines for the selectors, will place selection policy at the top of the agenda this week and will be aware that Vaughan believes experimentation can damage squad morale and unity.

Vaughan captained England for the 50th time in Tests at Headingley, only four behind the record set by Michael Atherton, and he has stated his ambition to lead them in next summer's Ashes series and beyond. But he is dangerously short of runs. He made a hundred at Lord's against New Zealand in the opening Test of the summer but, that innings apart, he has not passed fifty in 12 attempts. He was uneasy from the outset about the Pattinson gamble and that turned to downright annoyance after England's defeat when he was wrongly blamed in some quarters for the wildest selection gamble for years.

He favored Pattinson's inclusion ahead of Chris Tremlett on the morning of the Headingley Test once Ryan Sidebottom had been ruled unfit, because of the Nottinghamshire player's reputed ability to swing the ball, but he could only play the hand that the selectors had dealt him. He was at pains not to make the newcomer a scapegoat but complained that England lacked "a real togetherness" at Headingley and had paid the price. Such is his unease that he has taken soundings from several trusted advisers about how to protect the stability that has characterized his reign.

Peter Moores, the England coach, defended the selection policy in the aftermath of Headingley and emphasized that both he, as a selector, and Vaughan relied on the assessments of those who watched most county cricket - notably the national selector, Geoff Miller, and his fellow selector James Whitaker.

Moores said: "You've got to take advice on where any bowler is at a given time - is he bowling well, how's he going, what's he doing? That's what we've got Geoff for, that's what we've got James Whitaker for. People are out there telling you what's happening with a given bowler.

"You can look at their stats but you can't always go and see them yourself because you are playing a Test match or whatever and the schedules don't allow you to do that. Darren is a similar bowler to Matthew Hoggard in some ways, but that was the choice and it wasn't taken lightly."

Vaughan and Hoggard are Yorkshire team-mates but the captain is not a man for knee-jerk loyalty - he was involved in the dropping of Hoggard in New Zealand last winter. Nevertheless he has no desire for a return to the age of uncertainty.