Vaughan's tears were "real and heartfelt", but when Beckham reacted in the same way when resigning the England captaincy the general reaction was one of cynicism?

too, Patrick, but I think we're in the minority.

....had to go through what, say, Basil D'Oliveira went through, we'd be presumably awash in tears.

Michael Vaughan was in a poor patch of form and resigned the captaincy. Scores of cricketers before him have done exactly the same thing and felt just as hurt without feeling the need to go in for an unnecessarily long statement mentioning everyone and climaxing with a bit that was almost, gee, Dad, did I let you down?

It was sincere but it was also uncalled for. What are any of these guys going to do when there's real tragedy in their lives? In fact, when that does happen - when Trescothick had to retire because of his depression or Thorpe had his married life dragged through the public prints - they save it for their publishers.

Whereas Brian Close....he didn't even cry when Michael Holding did this to him. I would have done.

And his form is sporadic. He's a decent bloke and a good cricketer. I do have a view that the emotional, tear welling approach is part of the reason we are not as successful in sport as other nations. It is based on a feeling sorry for myself attitude which subtracts from the will to win.

And he could have stayed for the last test frankly.

I presume he won't keep his place in the team, either? Or, like Beckham, does he imagine that he will?

If you take away his initial purple patch of a few years ago then his average since then is probably somewhere in the 20s, which is just not good enough.

As to who takes over as captain, well it surely can't be Pieterson, can it? Is he bright enough? I don't think so. Is he English enough? Obviously not.

Strauss will do for me.

it would be amusing to see how Vaughan’s display would have gone down in the Yorkshire dressing room of the ’60s, with the likes of Close, Illingworth, Boycott and Trueman.
Having said that, who’s the more emotionally well-adjusted?
Vaughan was a great player and captain, but he’s getting on, has a dodgy knee and is struggling for form. I imagine the prospect of a few rides on the 20/20 gravy train is very attractive. Good luck to him. But couldn’t he have seen out the series?

I think to criticise Pieterson for being thick is unfair and slightly snobbish. Clearly he is no Mike Brealey but then I doubt Brealey could hit Murali for six like this:

It's a similar arguement to Beckham who was seemingly criticised for not being clever - why on earth should he be? He is a professional sportsman - to develop a talent such a Pieterson's or Beckham's I would hope a few lessons were skived!

What's important is that Pieterson is clearly England's best batsman and that his place in both the Test team and One Day side is assured unlike the other candidates. He also quite clearly plays with a passion for his country that negates the fact that this is not his country of birth (see also: Robin Smith, Allan Lamb, Andrew Caddick, Devon Malcolm etc). Those who atack Pieterson for supposedly 'stupid' shot selection might also think on that perhaps captaincy may make him slightly more 'mature' without curbing his natural insticts - it did not seem to affect Viv Richards for instance. Graham Smith himself is a good example of backing a brilliant batsman with a little captaincy experience.

Then again what do I know? I was out pulling second ball yesterday and bowled 3 overs for 45.

May I just say that Cricket on Five is a perfect television programme: right time, right length; brilliant commentators and analysts; unafraid; stylish; and the best presenter on TV.

One of the very few TV sport shows that the BBC would not do better.

He's got lovely hair too.

Listening to Mark Nicholas and his public school affectations is "cat scraping down the blackboard" time for me I'm afraid. Best thing about Sky getting the Test Cricket contract was that we didn't have endure his yelping anymore.

"That's the very best of Michael Vaughn!"

"Crikey O'Reilly!"

You have a point actually.

Sky Sports news are now showing their "tears" package.
Doesn't include Martin Johnson, I note.

Sorry David - didn't mean to be critical. Bad mood this morning despite this:

Sefton Park 5thXI visited Caldy, where the home side were put in to bat and declared on 210 for 6. Steve Shaw took 3 for 13 and Jamie Bowman 2 for 44. Sefton replied with 152 for 8 in a drawn game. Chris Mitchell (30 not out), Jamie Bowman (21) and Matty Shaw (19) in a drawn game.

Sefton Park's commitment to field a fifth Saturday XI, which enables more junior members to get a senior game hits problems with the school holiday season. Skipper Jamie Bowman wishes to thank all who helped him to field a side and hopes they enjoyed the game.

At least Pieterson won't have to cope with "school holiday season"!

Blokes crying on telly is just plain wrong. And him a yorkie, too. Shocking stuff. I like the look of Vaughan but he has just lost his chance of coming for a post career pint with me.

to find cricket being discussed as well. Marvelous.
There's a seriously intersting book to be written about the England teams of Duncan Fletcher and Moores - how on earth English cricket turned itself around from years of underachievement to win the Ashes against a genuinely great side and then return with a vengeance to underachievement all within the space of three or for years, and with many of the same players.
Egos, central contracts and money, cronyism, friendships, incompetence... Would love to know the whole story. Doubt it'll come from Vaughan however.

They all made money, or so I read once. Probably why there's so many of them. Your idea would make a great book that has the potential to be of interest to people who have never so much as seen a game of cricket (if you could get them to read it)

The "arc" of the book would be "We climbed an unscalable mountain then fell off the other side." There are "lessons" in that for everyone, not just cricket fans. I can honestly see those wanting to be the next Donald Trump learning from it.

It would be a book of two halves, the first half, "What went right" would end in 2005 with the open bus trip and the MBE's. The second half of course would be, "What went wrong" and would end in 2006/2007 with a 0-5 scoreline.

However we're too close to the events to get people talking candidly. Most of them are still playing. Give it a few years. It is a great idea.

It was more a case of never being able to pick what was probably the best 4 man attack England have ever had all fit and in form at the same time. Almost instantly they all got injured never to play as a quartet again. Although why Simon Jones is not being picked at the moment is beyond me.

I also like the book idea - it'll take a brave man to spill the beans though such is the tightness of that group. Ashley Giles has always struck me as a good candidate - his career arc matched the periiod perfectly.

Ashley benefited greatly from the closed shop approach to selection. He is hardly likely to write a book saying he wasn't worth his place in the team.
To be honest the best you can hope for is an account from one of the journalists close to the team.

Cricket on The Word website? more power to your elbow etc etc; does this mean we can now start posting items about things like- where can you get the best Kung po chicken, whats the best crime novel, is there a better bitter than Tim Taylor's Landlord?

Im all for broadening the website but can we establish a few rules first? please.

oh, Vaughan was a genius. for the record.