Former greats call for axing of Vaughan, Fletcher

Former England cricket captain Bob Willis has demanded Michael Vaughan be axed as skipper following the team's World Cup exit.

Willis, now a TV pundit, said coach Duncan Fletcher and chairman of selectors David Graveney should also be removed from their positions after South Africa's thumping nine-wicket win condemned Vaughan's men to a humiliating World Cup exit.

Fellow former captain Ian Botham added his voice to the furore insisting that Fletcher should be the man to carry the can.

Willis also hit out at the make-up of the county game in England as well as the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), who he accused of being obsessed with Test match cricket and forcing the one-day game down its list of priorities.

"They haven't given it the priority it deserves. Lately Duncan Fletcher has called for England to play more one-day internationals and eventually the ECB has ceded to that request. They are playing more and more," Willis told Sky Sports.

"Graveney, Fletcher and Vaughan - they've all got to go.

"We have got to start planning now for the next World Cup, which is on the sub-continent. They should get out the birth certificates and anyone who is 32 or over now - they're out of it.

"We have got to go back to preparing a side specifically for that tournament in four years time and get young players into the side. That preparation should start with the one-day internationals against the West Indies this summer."

'Change things now'

Meanwhile, Botham said Fletcher's reign as England coach must come to end.

After the nine-wicket defeat to the Proteas, Botham told Sky Sports that change is necessary and that the ECB should act quickly.

"Change it now," he said. "The World Cup is over and England have been humiliated and it is just not good enough. We have to change things and move on.

"We are disappointed but not surprised although surprised at how easy it was," Botham said, after South Africa reached England's lowly target of 155 inside 20 overs.

"I thought we would always battle and that we would have to play extremely well but to be quite frank we have watched this over the last couple of years in one-day cricket and it is not getting any better, it is getting worse.

"Today's performance summed it up. We are miles away from it. We need to stop right now, change our whole attitude, change our major personnel; everything has got to be changed. You cannot keep going like this.

"When you heard that crowd booing England off the field and the captain, when he went up to the presentation, it is hurting people now."

Botham praised for Fletcher for his contribution to English cricket in his time as coach but said all good things come to an end.

"I think Duncan Fletcher has done some great things for England over the years, let's not forget that, but I am sorry, everyone has a shelf life and his has expired," said the former all-rounder.

"I don't see how he can possibly motivate players. The camp looks split, they are all over the place and in disarray. The time has come.

"I hope the ECB are looking for the right option. He has to be a strong character and someone with a proven track record."

'Shambolic'

England's World Cup performance has been branded shambolic and feeble by the country's press after this morning's crushing defeat.

Fletcher's days in the job are numbered, papers said, after his side struggled throughout their stay in the Caribbean, with Bangladesh the only Test team they beat.

"If pride does not make him fall on his sword after a 5-0 Ashes whitewash and a miserable World Cup, he should be sacked by the ECB," wrote The Sun, on a page taken up largely by the headlines "Sunken Duncan" and "World Cup shambles".
The Times wrote that Vaughan's career as one-day captain was likely to go the same way as Fletcher's after England's "feeble performance".

"The truth was simply confirmed: that their World Cup hopes have never been realistic," the newspaper wrote in its Wednesday edition.

"England looked dazed, defenceless and defeated."