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Cricket Players‘We don’t have an MS Dhoni’: Vaughan unhappy with new Test coach Fleming for not being available for Pakistan series
The former England opener has warned Fleming that his job is going to be far more tough than it was at Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan isn’t happy that new Test coach Stephen Fleming is not joining the team for the upcoming three-Test series against Pakistan starting August 19 at Headingley. Fleming’s appointment came in the wake of the sacking of fellow New Zealander Brendon McCullum from the same role earlier this month — although the latter managed to survive as a white-ball coach of the English team.
"Stephen Fleming is a good appointment as England's Test coach, but he should be in position for the start of the Pakistan series, rather than taking over fully for the South Africa tour in December," Vaughan wrote in the Telegraph.
"It is about the small details, gaining experience of going to grounds such as Edgbaston – which hosts an Ashes Test – getting to know people involved in English cricket and fact-finding about our game by meeting the county coaches who can help him. These are the one-per-cent details England let slip during the Brendon McCullum years but are required to win major trophies.
"It also suggests the England job has lost a little of its allure because he does not feel he must start immediately. It also shows a little bit of desperation that England were willing to appoint a candidate on his terms, rather than their own," he added.
Fleming had great success with the IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings. Before leaving earlier this month, he won five IPL titles besides two Champions League ones during his 17 years there under the leadership of MS Dhoni. Vaughan has warned that new captain Joe Root is no MS Dhoni and that Fleming's task is rather cut out in the England set-up.
“Fleming is very well respected, renowned for being a very good manager and tactician. I’ve seen him at the IPL, and one of the problems he might discover in English cricket is that we do not have an MS Dhoni to be his captain.
“Dhoni ran the ship at Chennai Super Kings, and Fleming had some really good backroom coaches as well. Eric Simons was a wonderful bowling coach for him, a master at getting the white ball to swing. His team was built around skill with the ball, not express pace. I wonder whether that is an indication that the skill side of bowling will come back into the England Test team rather than just out-and-out speed," Vaughan wrote.
