"Over the last 10 to 15 years, or even further back, Yorkshire have not managed them (ex-England players) brilliantly and that is something that has to change." (Wardle, Boycott, Gough, Sidebottom, Hoggard, etc, etc.)
Vaughan should have all the problems of the cricket world put to right by the end of the week and after a couple of days off he should be ready to tackle world poverty, the middle east and global warming before starting an early christmas holiday.
its high time there was some serious cricket underway so all the cricket journos had some proper cricket to report on instead of just churning out chapter after chapter of Vaughans book and filling their columns with his views on whats going wrong with the game.
Yes we don't have a great track record of 'releasing' former England greats but thats because some people still view them as being at their peak when they have faded away by the time we let them go - as a diehard Boycs fan even i could see little sense in keeping him going much longer when we had 2 competent openers in the squad elsewhere.
Illingworth left for same reasons as Hoggard - longer contract to give greater security in his post 30 playing career. Yet we slate the club for offering some players too long a contract so we have to keep them for a season to far (Rana, Gough etc).
The club is no longer a charity case that can afford to allow ageing players to stay on the payroll at great expense whilst they reduce their level of contribution on the field as their ageing body gradually gives up on them. if this causes some players to consider other options then good luck to them and I am sure there are some counties out there who will take on these players but it does not always work out for the best as they will find out the hard way.
He's got a book to sell and journalists have columns to fill.
He's articulate, and gives good copy. Most of his opinions are fairly sensible. I'm 300 pages through his book now.
I don't think I'll bother asking for it for christmas now as there can't be much left unsaid?
Can't wait for volume two though, where he becomes a UN peace envoy, tells us how he nearly slipped on the carpet as the queen awarded him his knighthood, how he avoided drunken riots in the commentry box with Sir Ian Botham and finally became president of the EU.