With the help of journalist Mike Dickson, Michael Vaughan has produced a read in Time to Declare that is easy to follow, sympathetic yet surprisingly candid and honest when describing his fellow peers.
Yorkshire
The surprise elements early on was that Vaughan was in fact born and raised in the Manchester suburb of Worsley before moving to Yorkshire as a child. There he describes his sporting beginnings, making the difficult choice between football and cricket, but also his initial problems with knee injuries which was to plague him all through his cricket career.
Vaughan also warmly talks about his early days with Yorkshire, being mentored by Martyn Moxon and being brought up in a tough environment in the second XI. This culminated in being the first player born outside the Yorkshire region to be signed up by the county, and in his making a promising debut against Lancashire, making 64 against the likes of Wasim Akram, Defreitas and Glen Chapple in 1993. The early days are also an indication of how county cricket has changed in the last 20 years or so. As Vaughan himself points out, "when I first started there were cans of lager on the table at lunchtime, whereas now there are smoothies."
England
Time to Declare also describes his beginnings playing for England, making a baptism of fire against Allan Donald et al on a 1999-2000 tour of South Africa, making his first century against the Pakistanis in 2001, and his brilliant tour of Australia in 2002-3, where his four centuries propelled him to stardom despite playing in a heavily defeated side.
Then came one-day and eventually test captaincy, when England gelled together a world-beating side, with seven test victories coming in the summer of 2004 alone. The 2005 Ashes win is not overly analytical, but is described in a smooth but unhurried fashion, reflecting the hectic, breakneck cricket that was played in that hazy summer.
Opinion
What makes Time to Declare a refreshing read is that Michael Vaughan has a honest, bullish element to him which has seen him elevated to the BBC Test Match Special radio team in retirement. One chapter sees Vaughan describing his own feelings on the Ashes winning team individually, for example describing Kevin Pietersen as "a free spirit who needed telling that he should just react to the situation," and legendary all rounder Andrew Flintoff as having a knack of "upsetting people because he can be lazy."
Vaughan also reveals the strain of working with the selectors and Peter Moores; Duncan Fletcher's successor as team coach. Whereas Vaughan had a warm and close working relationship with the Zimbabwean, Vaughan found the ex-Sussex player difficult to work with, going insofar to say in one private match report as "not trusting him." The reader then discovers more about Vaughan's state of mind with extracts of his diary entries, detailing his difficulties in the tours of Sri Lanka and New Zealand, both mentally and physically. His emotional resignation after defeat to South Africa led him to admit that he "cried all morning," and that he was "relieved it was ending."
Book Review
Michael Vaughan shows his intelligence here with his varying views on 20/20 cricket, the Stanford debacle, the abilities and weaknesses of his team-mates, and also writes warmly on Andrew Strauss and the 2009 Ashes-winning side, as well as opposition players such as Rahul Dravid and Matthew Hayden.
Whilst not as raw and brutal as Marcus Trescothick's tribulations and honesty in his award winning book, Michael Vaughan's affable but candid nature shines through in Time to Declare, and the text is as easy and flowing as one of his trademark cover drives.
Time To Declare by Michael Vaughan with Mike Dickson was published originally in 2009 by Hodder and Stoughton: Hardback ISBN 978 0 340 91932 3
Ben Murray - Hi my name is Ben Murray, and I am a writer who has contributed to D.I.Y. music fanzines, magazines and cricket club newsletters. I hope ...
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