02/03/2006

The skipper has been no more than a peripheral presence since last summer's Ashes heroics and, by the time he had packed his bags at Nagpur, attention had already turned to Andrew Flintoff's decision to sacrifice witnessing the birth of his child in order to take charge of England for the whole of their three-Test tour.

Vaughan's enforced absence was little more than a sideshow, reflecting just how regularly he has been injured since making his international debut six years ago.

At the age of 31, the Yorkshireman's career is at a crossroads. Handled carefully, he could still be skippering England when Australia next visit in the summer of 2009. If recent trends continue, however, he will struggle to be involved when the next Ashes series begins this winter.

His current workload is crippling him and, as a result, the England management need to make some difficult decisions to safeguard the future of one of their leading lights. First and foremost, they need to draw a line under his one-day career and force him to focus all of his efforts on the Test scene.

His pride at leading his country means he will take some convincing but, for England's long-term benefit, Vaughan needs to be fit for the biggest of the battles that lie in wait. Despite next spring's World Cup in the West Indies, those battles will not take place on the one-day stage.

If this winter's events have proved anything, it is that Vaughan's body is no longer able to cope with the unrelenting intensity of the cricketing calendar.

His knees have always been a cause for concern - his current knee injury is his third in less than two years - but he is proving increasingly incapable of preventing a niggling problem developing into a fully-blown crisis.

He had his right knee cleaned up in an operation prior to the 2002-03 Ashes campaign, but the problem flared again ahead of November's tour of Pakistan. He missed the first Test in Multan and sat out the one-day series in order to return to England for surgery.

That operation has proved unsuccessful, though, with Vaughan struggling through a warm-up match in Mumbai before finally admitting defeat at the start of this week.

A more long-term solution is now needed and, while ruling England's skipper out of the one-day picture would cause controversy in some quarters, it is surely the most practical solution to a problem that is proving especially intractable.

After all, it is not as though Vaughan is an indispensable asset in a one-day international. In his 74 appearances in the limited-overs game, the opener averages just 28.36, less than Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood and even Liam Plunkett.

Significantly, he is yet to score a one-day century and, while his captaincy skills in the five-day environment are irrefutable, his record in the shorter form of the game is far less impressive.

England have won just 25 of their 48 one-day matches under Vaughan's control and, of those successes, almost half came against either Bangladesh or Zimbabwe.

With England's one-day side already in a period of transition - the likes of Collingwood, Plunkett, Matt Prior and Ian Blackwell are likely to form the backbone of the World Cup side - the omission of Vaughan would hardly send shockwaves through the camp.

Marcus Trescothick would need to work on his captaincy skills - assuming, of course, that he gets over his own problems ahead of this summer's series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan - and Duncan Fletcher may be forced to abandon his policy of using Prior as a pinch-hitting opener.

Ultimately, though, both forms of the game could end up stronger. England's one-day side would be shorn of a captain short of fitness and a batsman short of form.

The Test squad, on the other hand, would boast a fully-fit Vaughan desperate to regain his status as England's foremost five-day batsman. Retaining the status quo can only make a bad situation worse.

February's manager of the month will be announced next week and, if there is any justice, it will go to Newcastle caretaker boss Glenn Roeder.

The Academy director insists he does not want the job on a permanent basis but, if he continues to achieve the kind of results he has recorded since replacing Graeme Souness, he might yet be asked to change his mind.

Anyone who can make Jean-Alain Boumsong look like a top-class defender is clearly doing something right and, if further proof of his ability was needed, it is provided by a comparison with his contemporary at the Stadium of Light.

In his four games in charge of the Magpies, Roeder has garnered ten points. McCarthy boasts the same Premiership points haul with Sunderland - it has just taken him some 36 games to amass them.

The recent glut of surprise results has been held up as evidence of the enduring strength of the Six Nations Championship. Unfortunately, it has also underlined the weakness of the sides that contest it.

While all four home nations have impressed in patches, and France have provided inspiration and exasperation in equal measure, none are a patch on the all-conquering New Zealanders.

More worryingly, they even look to have dipped below a resurgent South Africa and a regrouping Australia.

As hosts, France will no doubt be a force to be reckoned with when the tournament gets under way next September. The outlook for the home nations, though, looks decidedly bleak.

Published: 02/03/2006