Michael Vaughan will be commentating on England's upcoming Test matches against South Africa. Photograph: Tom Jenkins
England have never won a major international cricket trophy and according to Michael Vaughan they have no chance of ending that barren run unless they release their players for the entirety of next season's Indian Premier League.
"We should be making our players available for the whole of the IPL window," the former England captain said today. "We are not great at Twenty20 cricket. We've got a Twenty20 World Cup in May and at the minute we've got no chance. If it was my England team I'd be looking at the first-team players and thinking that I want them to experience playing in those IPL games, I'd want to have them playing in those packed stadiums and picking the brains of all those great players. That will give us a better chance of winning the Twenty20 World Cup.
"We have to give our players as much opportunity as possible to try and win a trophy," continued Vaughan, who was speaking at the launch of his new role as the public face of the Advanced Hair Studio. "England should take the guys who could do with a rest from Test cricket and send them to play in the IPL to develop their Twenty20 skills." Such a move, however, would mean that the players were unavailable for England's tour to Bangladesh in the spring.
The next IPL player auction is scheduled for 19 January, with each franchise having a budget of $750,000 [£451,000] to spend on new recruits. Eoin Morgan and Jonathan Trott are both believed to have been in contact with teams over their possible availability.
At the moment, the participation of England's players is likely to be restricted to a three-week stint running from 12 March to 25 April. That means it will clash with England's tour to Bangladesh, which begins in late February and finishes on 24 March. Vaughan, though, thinks England's key players should skip the tour and focus on preparing for the World Twenty20 in the West Indies in May.
"I don't have any quibble with senior players missing the Bangladesh tour," Vaughan said. "That tour is not going to be about developing the team for the Ashes. This winter will be about developing a side for the Ashes. Bangladesh is a very different kind of cricket. Sending players to the IPL would produce a few good performances and help develop a good network of players to come back and play for us in the Twenty20. One thing our Twenty20 players don't have is experience."
Aside from Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff and Paul Collingwood, who are all already signed up with IPL teams, Vaughan feels England should clear the schedules of Stuart Broad, Trott, Morgan, Graeme Swann and James Anderson to allow maximum exposure to the short form of the game.
"We're getting very good at the 50-over game now and that's because we're getting used to playing in it as a unit and as individuals," added Vaughan, who is about to leave for South Africa to commentate on the upcoming Test series and has kept a close eye on the see-sawing fortunes of the England team on the tour so far.
"This one-day team is one of the best I've seen," he said, "especially in the range of options we have. The fielding unit is very athletic and with the bat we've certainly got different styles of batsmen, which is crucial.
"I like the way the team are playing, and I don't think the back-up and management teams are being given enough credit for that. For a team to operate in such an effortless mode, the backroom staff are doing a lot right. The players are playing with an energy and a vibrancy and an enjoyment, which means that what they are doing in training is right."
Source: guardian.co.uk/
