Vaughan's Book

Being bedridden with a nasty cold allowed me to read Michael Vaughan's autobiographical "Calling the Shots". It was given to me as a gift.

It's an odd sort of autobiography, in that it only covers a period of less than 3 years - from 2003 to 2005. The focus is his story as England captain, especially the 2005 Ashes.

As someone who followed the England team fairly closely during that period (I even attended the first 2 days of the first test match which he won as captain), there wasn't a large amount of new information there, but it is interesting to see his perspective on events. He does contrast his management style with that of his predecessers Hussain and Atherton. His chief innovation (besides hiring a team masseuse) is empowering players as a means of keeping their heads in the game. It seems a lot of captains just yell out orders, but Vaughan is more of a delegator.

Apart from a couple of journalists, the only personal conflict Vaughan illustrates in the book is between him and South African captain Graeme Smith. The portrait of Smith is not too flattering. Great batsman, not such a great guy. In particular he accuses Smith of childish sledging and acting as a witness against him in a silly issue which cost him a match fee.

The book has a lot of nice color photos and gives a nice account of the England tam's greatest hits of recent years. It also provides some insight into what it's like to be England captain and into some of the key decisions that helped bring about the 2005 Ashes victory.