Flintoff ruined World Cup: Vaughan

[Sagacious]

Vaughan says Flintoff ruined World Cup

Michael Vaughan has blamed Andrew Flintoff for destroying England's team spirit and contributing to a disastrous World Cup campaign in the Caribbean.
The England captain says Flintoff's drunken lapse of discipline after the team's first game, when he had to be rescued after capsizing a pedalo, demoralised the camp. "We arrived at the World Cup in a positive frame of mind," Vaughan said in an exclusive interview with the Guardian. "But unfortunately incidents happened which affected the team. You have to be honest: the 'Fredalo' incident did affect the team. It did affect morale.

What a sore loser is this fellow :

 

[Griffo]

i read that in disbelief to put a whole world cup loss on one player is unacceptable behaviour from anyone especially the captain

 

[Skater]

The writer makes much more of Vaughan's comments than he should have done. Never does he directly blame Flintoff for ruining the World Cup. He never says the World Cup was ruined at all, he just says the Fredalo incident didn't help.

 

[Griffo]

but why is vaughan searching for excuses and brining up old wounds its ridiculous

 

[sohum]

but why is vaughan searching for excuses and brining up old wounds its ridiculous

He was probably asked a question along these lines: "How did the Flintoff incident affect you during the World Cup?" And his response was then probably used as a basis of how it affected England.

 

[Animator!]

Media twisted.
It's obvious.

 

[Vcassano]

Vaughan's words were certainly twisted and taken a little out of context but he may have had a point.

 

[Sureshot]

He definitely had a point. After the Pedalo incident the players would have been wary of going out and enjoying themselves.

 

[Kev]

Vaughan does have a point, however I dont know what he is thinking by coming out and saying it publically, it should have been left in the dressing room, by coming out and saying it now he's only causing more problems with morale.

 

[MUFC1987]

I agree with Vaughan. Flintoff seems to act as though he's untouchable, when he isn't.

 

[Almost_Austwick]

This has been blown our of all proportion. Vaughn sounds like he trying to have a dig at the media but as usual they've twisted it to absolve themselves of blame.

If the media hadn't of come down so hard on Flintoff or maybe waited until after the competition had ended it would have improved morale no end. Instead, you have mock public condemnation, Flintoff being dragged through the press and the England management being left with very little room for maneuver.

It also led to the team being paranoid at being seen enjoying themselves, which coming at the end of the Ashes series was probably the straw that broke the camels back.

Yes, they are highly paid professionals but they are also human and like us mere mortals deserve a bit of privacy and the chance to unwind from time to time. Flintoff chose the wrong occasion to do so, but if the public and media weren't so vindictive then it could have been dealt with in the dressing room without having undue effect on the others.

However, by saying all that there is also a small matter of Vaughn re-asserting his control on the team (and also maybe casting aside a pretender to his throne?). Whether or not this is the right way to go about things time will tell but maybe he feels that a little bit of a public dig at Flintoff will have more effect than a series of behind the scene chats. I think it's pretty much agreed that there are some problems with Flintoff (ok, some of its hearsay but no smoke without fire and all that) and if this statment along with the pedalo incident gets him to pull his finger out then world cricket is a winner for it.

 

[madmusician]

Well Vaughan now says that he was misquoted, and the Guardian have put a link to the original audio on their site - proving that he wasn't misquoted and did say Fredalo...

Link here

What bemuses me is that he clearly is pushed into the answer and I'm not certain that it is Vaughan saying it...

Any other opinions?

 

[PhilD123]

The words were twisted and he never did blame Flintoff. I can't see why he was talking about the World Cup now though.

In my opinion, Jim Cumbes was right to stand up for his player, with what he thought was said.

 

[zimrahil]

Vaughan does have a point, however I dont know what he is thinking by coming out and saying it publically, it should have been left in the dressing room, by coming out and saying it now he's only causing more problems with morale.

spot on !

 

[SaiSrini]

I feel Vaughan's words are blown out of proportion. I wont worry about the morale thing. If Flintoff cant take it in his stride as Vaughan's opinion, then he doesnt deserve to be in a team. A team is a collection of 11 different individuals with 11 different opinions. This was Vaughan's opinion.

Similar problem happened in India and was blown into a full fledged war between Saurav and Chappell. Saurav couldnt digest Chappell's opinion and went to the media about it.