It's now or never for misfiring Vaughan

After the last World Cup I

sat down with Duncan

Fletcher, ordered a pot of

tea and discussed with him

my future as England’s oneday

international captain.

We both decided that I

didn’t have one. Now we will

see if Michael Vaughan will

be having a similar chat with

the coach after tomorrow’s

vital game here against

South Africa.

This is a genuinely huge

game of cricket, mainly

because people’s jobs and

futures are at stake, and the

only difference this time if

the coach and captain sit

down to talk will be that the

future of both of them is on

the agenda, not just that of

Vaughan.

Unlike my former England

colleague and fellow

member of the Schofield

Committee Angus Fraser, I

do not think this is the right

time to be discussing who should or should not be

sacked at the end of this

World Cup.

Ludicrous

though it may seem after

much of the cricket England

have produced in this

tournament, Fletcher and

Vaughan could possibly be

sitting down with a glass of

champagne toasting a

World Cup victory to add to

their Ashes success of 2005

come April 28 rather than a

pot of tea and a huge slice of

recrimination.

England, for all their

struggles in the Caribbean,

are conceivably three

games away from winning

the World Cup.

But for that

to happen the captain really

must stand up, starting

tomorrow at the

Kensington Oval in what has

become a quarter-final

knockout game.

At times England have

looked the part, when Kevin

Pietersen and Ian Bell were

hammering Australia and in

the bowling and fielding

efforts against Sri Lanka.

Yet

for them to win tomorrow,

all of this has to come

together.

When I was captain and not

scoring runs I felt

embarrassed. I hated

having to tell players they

were not playing when they

had every right to wonder

why I was in the side.

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There

are similarities between

Vaughan’s situation and

mine this time four years

ago. But there are also

differences — for a start, I

was scoring more runs than

him, fielding better than

him and my body wasn’t

falling apart!

Vaughan is a calmer, more

confident character than

me but I detected for the

first time in the game

against Bangladesh that the

captain’s confidence is low

and that he’s a bit out of

nick.

I think that awful dropped

catch against Bangladesh hit

him quite hard and, not for

the first time, I was

reminded of Darren Gough’s

words when Vaughan first

came into the England side

— watch out, he has a habit

of dropping dollies...

Whenever Vaughan is

interviewed he says he feels

in good form and is hitting

the ball well, but that’s all

part of the mental battle he

is fighting with himself.

It’s a

bit like Tiger Woods never

admitting to playing some

bad shots when he has had a

less than perfect round.

It was deja vu for me

hearing Fletcher saying that

Vaughan is an all-rounder

because of his captaincy.

That’s the line he used to use

about me when I wasn’t

scoring runs, but there’s no

question that Vaughan

should remain in England’s

side because he’s an

exceptional captain.

Tomorrow will be a very

tense occasion between

teams who do not like each

other and Vaughan’s calm

authoritative leadership

will be crucial if England are

to win.

South Africa can

‘bottle it’ in games like this,

but this England side,

whatever their form, are

not bottlers and for that

reason they have every

chance of winning at a

ground which has been

good for English cricket.

Vaughan owes England for

the faith they have shown

in him in one-day cricket.

Now is the time for him to

repay it.