Peter Moores, Kevin Pietersen and me – by Michael Vaughan

SPIN: One of the switches between Duncan Fletcher and Peter Moores was that Moores wanted to select players by measuring averages and stats, rather than on character…

Michael Vaughan: At the highest level I think it’s important to have guys who are very tough. When you start talking about averages you’re getting away from the processes of doing your day-to-day job. You’re looking too far ahead. 

The whole aspect of playing high-level sport is keeping yourself in the now: performing in that minute on that one ball. And the constant talk of averages and methods… I think it affected players. They were looking over their shoulders, thinking if they didn’t average ‘x’ they’d be back on the county treadmill. I’ve never known any player be too comfortable with being in the England team. The reason why players fail is usually because they feel under too much pressure either from themselves or people around them. I always felt my job as captain was trying to release that pressure.

[Peter Moores and I] obviously didn’t have a great professional relationship. Duncan had such a great reign, and I think [Moores] wanted to put his own stamp on it but I don’t think that there was necessarily the amount of change required that he was trying to implement. 

Me and him not having the chance to work with both teams – I resigned as ODI captain straight away after the 2007 World Cup– it wasn’t easy for him. But there’s no point in lying: I didn’t link with Peter Moores as well as I had done with Duncan Fletcher, and if you look back at all the successful reigns the captain-coach situation is such an important one and when it’s not right you can probably tell by the results on the pitch…

Were you consulted over Moores’ appointment?

No. 

That would surprise our readers…

I’d never met him… I’d heard he was doing a great job at Loughborough. At the time I was quite in favour of an English guy coming in. But for some reason it didn’t work. 

But, as the captain, you should have been consulted, shouldn’t you?

Well, I wasn’t consulted about very much. [Chairman of selectors] David Graveney was a guy I trusted and had a good relationship with and he got the axe without my having a phone call. When the Schofield report [into English cricket, post-2006/07 Ashes] came out – we had some very high-profile people on that report making some great suggestions but the most important one about the need for our players to play less cricket’s not even been looked at. So… was it a good report? You’d have to say no.

There seemed to be an overall sense that the team had too much power. But I’m not too sure about that. 

Kevin Pietersen didn’t think England could win the Ashes with Peter Moores as coach. Did you?

[Long pause] If him and Kevin had got on, yeah. But captain and coach not getting on? No chance.

 

So Moores’ approach was not so flawed that it brought the whole team down…

[slightly incredulous at the idea] Nah… Me and Peter didn’t click. That’s why I had to move over, because I thought someone else needed to take on the team and the new person needed to bond a new relationship with Peter and his new ideas. I don’t have an ego at all. I wasn’t so egotistical that I wanted to stay in the captaincy job as long as I possibly could, ’cos I probably could have done. I wanted to pass it on. And unfortunately Peter and Kevin didn’t get on.

 But in a funny way everything happens for a reason. Getting Andy Flower and Straussy together… it looks like a fantastic partnership. It looks very similar to  the one myself and Duncan had and that Nasser and Duncan had and it’s good to see the England team working in a smooth controlled way.

 

There’s a perception that you might have had an involvement in the process of  Kevin Pietersen trying to get rid of Peter Moores… Was there anything in that?

Absolute crap.

But you know that’s a perception? That idea that you were some kind of backstage Godfather of English cricket, always having a say even when you weren’t playing…

It’s absolute crap. Anyone who knows Kevin Pietersen knows that he makes his own decisions. Throughout my time I didn’t necessarily agree with a lot of Peter’s ideas, but once I’d gone, I’d gone. I had no input. 

Michael Vaughan’s Time to Declare is in shops now, published by Hodder. The full interview, from which this is extracted, is in the Christmas issue of SPIN, in shops now.