Vaughan wants England players to play PM XI game, saying that it would be an amateurish decision to skip the game.
Michael Vaughan: ‘Amateurish’ if England don’t play PM’s XI fixture.
Former captain Michael Vaughan has called it “amateurish” because England is unlikely to send any of the players from their eight-wicket humiliation in Perth to Canberra for the pink-ball tour match next week.
Due to Australia’s quick victory in the first Ashes Test, England now has 11 days before the second, day-night Test in Brisbane begins on December 4. On November 29, a two-day pink-ball encounter between an England XI and a Prime Minister’s XI is planned; however, the England Lions had long been slated to play in that match instead of the primary touring group.
Brendon McCullum, England’s head coach, said after the first Test that England would consider sending some players to Canberra. “I haven’t even thought about it just yet, to be honest, because I planned on us being a little bit longer than two days,” he told the BBC’s Test Match Special. “We’ll let the dust settle tonight and then we’ll have a good think about it tomorrow.”
Ben Stokes, their captain, suggested that England will stick to their guns and head straight to Brisbane on November 26 to prepare for the second Test at the Gabba. “That’s how it was done a long time ago,” he replied, when asked if his side should look to play another competitive match in the aftermath of their heavy defeat.
“We prepare incredibly well,” Stokes said. “We work incredibly hard every single day that we get the opportunity to work on our game, and that’s what we’ll keep on doing because we believe and we trust in our process.
“If the results don’t go the way in our favour, that’s not going to differ from that (sic) because, hand on heart, we know that we put every little bit or ounce of ourselves into our training, and we know and believe that this is the best way for this team to operate.”
The leading scorer in the 2002–03 Ashes, Vaughan, went even further and suggested that England should field the fast bowlers who played in Perth and enter the tour match at full strength.
“It’s amateurish if they don’t go and play now,” he said. “What harm is playing two days of cricket with a pink ball under lights?
“They’ve played two days of cricket. They’ve been out in the field for, what, 70 [67.3] overs? Look, they’re professional cricketers. I can’t be so old-school to suggest that by playing cricket, you might get a little bit better… My method would be, you’ve got a pink-ball, two-day game: you go and grab it, go and take it. Play those two days, and make sure that you’re giving yourself the best chance.
“It’s not being old-school to suggest that a pink ball is different to a red ball. Playing under the lights is different. Australia have won pretty much every pink-ball game in Australia: they’ve lost once. I’m not too old-school to suggest that they should play in that game… I’d like to know why they wouldn’t.”