Sunday, August 3, 2008

End of an Era

Michael Vaughan, the most successful captain of England cricket team resigned after his team's loss to South Africa in the recent test series. It brings an end to Vaughan's 51-match run as captain, four games short of becoming England's long-serving leader, although his 26 victories makes him, statistically, the most successful captain.

Pressure on Vaughan has been growing in recent months despite back-to-back series victories against New Zealand. The series loss to South Africa is England's third in five series, dating back to the 1-0 reversal against India last summer. They then lost by the same margin in Sri Lanka before losing the first Test against New Zealand in Hamilton. Vaughan led a shake-up of the team by dropping Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison and England hit back to take the series, but the performances were not convincing.

Winning the ashes in 2005, beating South Africa away and beating West Indies away were one of the high points in Vaughan's captaincy tenure.

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