Broad is acting like he’s too big for criticism, says Vaughan
MICHAEL VAUGHAN has accused Stuart Broad of thinking he is above criticism after the England fast bowler reacted angrily to his comments following the Lord’s Test defeat against Pakistan.
Vaughan had suggested England could consider dropping Broad for Headingley in a bid to shake the Test team out of its cosiness — prompting Broad to hit back on Friday evening after he took three for 38 on the first day of the second Test.
Broad said that Vaughan lacked ‘insight into the England dressing-room’, annoying the former England captain, who duly had his say once more, this time on BBC radio during a rain-hit second morning in Leeds.
‘I got a sense last night that you can’t criticise me, because I’m Stuart Broad and I’ve been in the team for a long time and played 117 Tests,’ Vaughan told Test Match Special.
‘You’ve got to be very careful when you choose the time to come out and attack, which Stuart did on Friday night. England were still 70 runs behind Pakistan. They haven’t won this Test match yet. The comments were geared as if they’d won the game. He’s a senior member of the team. I don’t think it was the right time to plan that attack.
‘He should have patted back a few of the questions with a nice straight bat. He probably wanted to show to the team that he’s disappointed. But the fan out there wants to see England play good cricket.
‘We don’t want to criticise, but we want them to get a bit of a prod. Friday was great, but they’ve had one good day. You’ve got to be careful in sport that the comments don’t come back and bite you.’
Broad phoned Vaughan earlier in the week to express his disappointment over his comments after England lost the first Test by nine wickets. But Vaughan insisted the conversation was private — and would remain that way.
Instead, he tried to justify the criticism that upset the bowler in the first place. ‘I felt the England side needed to ruffle a feather or two,’ he said.
‘I feel it has been very comfortable for a long period of time, and one of the options may have been to break up the senior pair [of Jimmy Anderson and Broad].
‘The criticism over the past few days geed them up to come out and prove us all wrong. It wasn’t just me who criticised the England team — and they deserved it. It wasn’t just Lord’s. It was the whole winter.
‘England have lost eight Tests in 15. They played very poorly in the Ashes, and lost in New Zealand. They lost to a very young West Indies side here at Headingley last year.
‘But we lambast sportspeople who come out with cliches, so it’s good Stuart has got some things off his chest.’