Why Vaughan had a go at the Fredalo

Michael Vaughan’s ‘Fredalo’ spat has been the hot

topic of the week as once again we bring together our ‘Three Wise Men’ of county

cricket — Surrey captain Mark Butcher, Hampshire’s former England batsman John Crawley and Lancashire’s ‘English' Australian Stuart Law — to tackle the burning issues

of the day. . .

PAUL NEWMAN: You have all been

around a long time and know how

dressing rooms work. What did you

make of the row between Vaughan

and Flintoff that overshadowed the

build-up to the third Test?

STUART LAW: It reminded me of last

winter when England left Monty

Panesar out of the first two Ashes

Tests. After that Duncan Fletcher

started saying things like ‘I don’t

pick the team on my own’ and basically

put the blame on to Freddie.

Now Vaughan also decided to kick

Flintoff in the guts when he didn’t

have a leg to stand on by bringing

up something that happened

months ago and was dealt with at

the time. That can’t go down well

in a team environment.

We keep hearing people say everything

is fine within the England

team, but if those close to it keep

on saying that it’s almost as if

they’re trying to convince themselves.

I haven’t spoken to Fred

about it because he’s probably sick

of being asked but it has made me

think that if the England captain

has told lies over using this word

‘Fredalo’ then what else has he lied

about?

Fans who spend good

money on following the England

team have a right to know what’s

going on here.

JOHN CRAWLEY: It was certainly

pretty naive of Michael to get

caught up in something like this

unless he had an agenda, like he

was still concerned about Freddie’s

discipline.

It’s an unfortunate

episode for a guy like Flintoff, who

has given so much for England, and

the drinking business shouldn’t

have been brought up again now

because everything was dealt with

in the West Indies.

MARK BUTCHER: I ignored the whole

business. Michael was asked a

question and gave a straight

answer and then just about everyone

involved over-reacted and it all

snowballed. It deflected attention

from a pretty uninteresting Test

series.

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PN: Let’s put the spotlight on the

county scene. Who has caught your

eye on the circuit?

MB: Everybody knows all about

Alastair Cook but his one-day hundred

for Essex against us proved to

me we will soon be seeing him in

the England one-day side as well as

the Test team.

You need explosive

batsmen as well as those who keep

the scoreboard ticking over in limited

overs games.

If you picked

Cook you could lob in another wild card like James Benning or Ravi

Bopara near the top of the order.

Cook is not the sort of bloke who

gets affected by pressure at critical

times in one-day matches.

Yasir Arafat and Darren Stevens

of Kent also impressed me. Stevens

made me get cross on the field,

which is quite unusual for me, but

it was only because I had to bowl at

him! I told him he had made a

career out of getting crappy 20s

and 30s and I cursed him all the

way to 170 odd! At least I said ‘well

batted’ to him afterwards!

Gareth Batty also bowled really

well against us for Worcestershire,

helped by the footholes caused by

the left-arm over bowling of Doug

Bollinger.

As a left-hander it was

quite refreshing to see the righthanders

having to deal with rough

outside their off-stump for a

change!

PN: What about that ‘youngster’,

Alan Butcher, who had to field for

Surrey at Worcester?

MB: Yes, the coach had to come on

for a little spell when our 12th man

was already on and we needed

another fielder.

He managed to slip

over on his backside pinging a

throw back to the keeper, which

caused us all much mirth and

earned rapturous applause from

the Worcester faithful! It was the

only time he touched the ball.

JC: I think the standard of the

championship is getting better

each season.

One lad who stood

out against us is the young

‘Kolpak’ player at Kent, Ryan

McLaren. He looks like he’s going

to be a genuine all-rounder and

fields like a demon.

SL: Chris Benham impressed me

when we played you, John. He

looked to dominate an attack that

included Flintoff and when I spoke

to Shane Warne about him he said

he’d got a lot of growing up to do

but had a lot of talent.

That word ‘potential’ is a

horrible one. It gets used

about people who haven’t

produced yet and you

want to see youngsters like Benham

throwing off terms like that by

achieving.

JC: Chris’s problem this year is getting

into the side because we have a

lot of batsmen competing for the

top five positions and he has found

his path blocked by Michael Carberry.

I’m sure his chance will come.

PN: John mentioned Kolpak players.

What do we make about their

arrival in our game and those like

you, Stuey, who have qualified as

non-overseas players through

residence?

SL: I certainly feel sorry for someone

like Ian Harvey, who has been

playing here for a long time, has

chosen to live in this country,

retired from Australian cricket and

at the moment is being stopped

from working here.

Then you get

Jacques Rudolph at Yorkshire who

we all expect to further his education

in the domestic game and then

go back to play for South Africa. I

know which one I’d prefer to see

playing as a non-overseas player.

It’s a touchy subject and one I’m

closely involved in but my wife is

English and I’ve made my life here

too so I feel I’ve got more rights

than these Kolpak guys to play

here.

I could even play for England

next year, so if they want a 39-yearold

has-been they know where to

come! But my old man would give

me an upper cut if I ever said I was

English!

PN: Butch, am I right in thinking

that Surrey are against Kolpak

players?

MB: I would look silly opening my

gob if we then went and signed one

but as a rule we prefer to go with

English guys.

I am happy to abide

by the rules and if other counties

sign people as per the rules then

I’m not going to gripe.

JC: I think the

ECB are right to try to regulate

this by offering financial incentives

for counties to go with at least

eight English qualified players and

I would like to see the penalties

stiffer for those who don’t.

It’s so

important to have a large pool of

English players.

As a senior man I don’t think I’d

have a problem if a good young

English player started pushing for

my place but if it was a Kolpak

player of medium quality then I

wouldn’t be so happy.

The good

ones, like Nic Pothas, justify their

places and I don’t think you can

argue Rudolph hasn’t been a good

investment for Yorkshire.

PN: I was expecting to see all three

of your teams at the top of Division

One this year. What’s happened?

JC: We’ve been playing pretty good

one-day cricket but we haven’t performed

to the standards we set

ourselves in the four-day game. It’s

not rocket science. We need to put

more runs on the board in first

innings but we have played one

game fewer than some and we are

one-and-a-half wins from the top.

SL: We feel pretty much the same. I

know we get accused of whingeing

about the weather but it hasn’t

done us any favours again. And

then when a Test is at Old Trafford

they get glorious sunshine! And I

see it’s officially the wettest Test

ground in the world now!

PN: Stuey, I’ve seen a suggestion

that your captain Mark Chilton

has been a little too cautious in his

declarations at times?

SL: Mark is often more keen to

declare and set targets than some

of the senior players and maybe he

gets swayed by others at times.

He’s big enough to deal with

things. Maybe we need to risk losing

to start winning but we’re not

that far away. Our results haven’t

reflected our performances.

MB: We need more penetration in

our attack but we are not far away

from that elusive first win. The

spirit in the camp is still decent

and we are all backing each other.

PN: And how have you and Mark

Ramprakash reacted to being

linked with Test recalls?

MB: We have more pressing matters

to worry about at Surrey! The cynic

inside me wonders if it might be a

PR exercise for the selectors following

the success of Ryan Sidebottom’s

selection but everybody

in county cricket has a chance of

being noticed now and that’s

exactly how it should be.

Bumble’s world

What got David Lloyd’s goat this week and what put a smile on his face. . .

THE GOOD

It was great to see Sir

Viv Richards at Old

Trafford. The West Indies

contingent of Viv, Michael Holding,

Tony Cozier, Ian Bishop, Colin Croft

and Jimmy Adams in the

commentary boxes are proud men

and really do feel the demise of

cricket in the Caribbean.

The

passion of Viv is still there and I

overheard him say "I am a proud

man today" when the young West

Indies team got stuck in and showed character during their

second innings.

Viv also said, defiantly, that this will

be the last time England win a

series against the Windies. He

believes in his team, who still have a

long way to go and I learned many

years ago that you do not mess with

I.V.A. Richards.

THE BAD

A mild rebuke to all who still say

Monty Panesar cannot vary his

pace, even after his match-winning

bowling in the third Test: let him

work it out. John Emburey said he

did not know off-spinning until he

was 27 and he had been playing for

England for two years then. Monty

will be fine.

AND THE PLAIN DAFT

The partners of our sports stars are

known as WAGS (wives and

girlfriends). I have thought up a

name for the partners of my

commentary box colleagues when

we are on tour — Sky Ladies And

Girlfriends. It got an immediate

knock back for some reason!

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. . . and my world

It was great to hear

from Ashley Giles after

his visit to Italy for an

important appointment

with the hip specialist

who is attempting to salvage

his career after a

second operation.

Ashley reports he is

now off crutches and his

rehabilitation is going

well but it is too soon to

say when, or even if, he

will be playing again

for Warwickshire. We

wish him well.

A final thought.

Is it too much to

ask that when we venture to Durham we

can leave behind the

drunken, loutish, fancy

dress behaviour that

seemed to afflict so

many supporters at the

Headingley and Old

Trafford Tests?

Are yobs taking over

our northern Test venues? I’m sure the

good folk of the northeast

will put me right. . .