THE MEL FARRELL INTERVIEW
MICHAEL VAUGHAN
PUNDIT, AGITATOR, URN LIFTER, FREETHINKER
PHOTO BY GARETH COPLEY
The former England captain turned commentator on learning from past mistakes, the need for a shake-up of the county game, and why the national side shouldn’t fear losing their best players to franchise leagues
Australian writer and broadcaster
@melindafarrell
There are two things a reporter expects when Michael Vaughan is the subject of an interview. One is that he never tires of discussing cricket, so deeply does the game run through his veins. A case in point: after talking for an hour to WCM at the SCG during the third Test, he asked to continue the conversation the following day, keen to emphasise the importance of distributing the game’s wealth across the globe.
The second is that publishing his views will provoke a strong reaction, one way or another. Vaughan has never been shy of expressing his opinion, and his reputation was dented after he was accused of making a racist comment in 2009 while playing for Yorkshire – an allegation which was subsequently found ‘not proved’ by the Cricket Discipline Committee (CDC) due to inconsistencies in the evidence put forward by the ECB.
Vaughan doesn’t wish to discuss the investigation or the accusation against him – “I will have my say eventually about the whole procedure,” he says – but during a 90-minute discussion he speaks expansively about the state of the game at all levels. He is particularly forthright on the future of county cricket and believes the domestic structure will ultimately be reduced to 10 high-performance men’s counties, a seismic suggestion that will be met with indignation across the shires.
“The membership model in cricket for me is gone,” says Vaughan. “The age and the diversification of members across county cricket, it’s all in the past. The game has moved on so quickly. You don’t forget the older people that love the game of cricket, but we have to listen to the voices of younger people. I look at the boards around county cricket and I don’t see many young people. How many under 30s are there on boards for county teams?