England coach Peter Moores has refused to rule out a return to the Test scene for former captain Michael Vaughan when the squad for the tour of the West Indies is announced on Monday.
Vaughan spent five years as both England’s Test and one-day captain before resigning during the home Test series against South Africa in August, a campaign England lost, having struggled for runs.
He then took time out from the international arena but was unable to find form with Yorkshire.
The 34-year-old was not selected for the recently concluded tour of India.
Nevertheless, Vaughan was awarded a lucrative England central contract and spent time in India with England’s performance or back-up squad.
He still believes he has a future in international cricket and the man who led England to Ashes glory in 2005 would love another crack at Australia during next year’s home series.
And with top-order batsman Ian Bell once again failing to make much of an impact in India and England seemingly reluctant to give Owais Shah a chance to transfer his one-day form to the Test format, Vaughan has been touted as a candidate for the West Indies tour.
“Michael has had no cricket,” Moores told Sky Sports yesterday. “But we have got to look at where we are now as a team and what we think is right to go forward as a batting unit.”
“So we will look at those decisions once the dust has settled, get the views of people like [national selector] Geoff Miller, and the views of the side of the camp and make our decisions,” he said.
“Michael made a very strong point he wants to play for England again, he is very keen to, and with that committed himself to go to Bangalore for the performance camp,” Moores said.
Nasser Hussain, the man Vaughan succeeded as England captain in 2003, said now was not the time to call-up the Yorkshire strokeplayer.
“Bringing him back at this stage cannot be justified and would create more problems than it solves,” Hussain wrote in a column for the Daily Mail.
“Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of Michael’s batting and the experience he would bring as a successful ex-captain,” he said. “But the time isn’t right.
“Since retiring as Test skipper in the summer, Michael has done nothing to justify winning back a place in England’s top order,” Hussain said.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite