MANCHESTER: Michael Vaughan ought to be taking a bow, receiving accolades from his peers and being acknowledged as the greatest of all the England captains. Instead, he has put his foot deep into the mire that surrounds every man in the public eye.

Vaughan has claimed that "the Fredalo incident" — his phrase for the way in which Andrew Flintoff tried to go drunkenly to sea in a pedalo — brought down England during the World Cup.

It hurt team morale, he says, made the team tense and stopped his players relaxing. As a result, according to Vaughan, they only reached the Super Eight stage. Within a few hours of the publication of his views — in the thoughtful morning newspaper The Guardian — Vaughan was under fire from all sides.

In particular, he was mown down by Jim Cumbes, the chief executive of Lancashire, who called Vaughan's attack on Flintoff "despicable."

Cumbes said: "In the last few years Freddie has given England blood." Not forgetting 197 Test wickets, five centuries and a degree of charisma missing since the Botham era.

Ill-timed

There are two other factors which make Vaughan's outburst ill-timed. Flintoff is at home recovering from an ankle operation which results from his efforts for England in the last nine years; how miserable will he be to be attacked by his captain.

On Thursday, Vaughan must lead England out on Flintoff's home ground at Old Trafford in front of a crowd which adores Flintoff. Lancashire is the county which rejected the teenage Vaughan and forced him to join its great rival Yorkshire.

Vaughan must have expected the next 72 hours to be a continuing triumph. Victory at Headingley, his home ground, brought him level with Peter May whose 20 wins — also completed at Headingley — was the greatest number by any England captain.

Vaughan also made a century on his return and England's opponents are the weakest West Indies team in living memory.

Now the expectation of glory has been overtaken because he forgot the strongest rule in sport: think twice before you criticise one of your teammates.

Brave attempt

It ought to be a weekend of uninterrupted celebration for England and Vaughan. Instead, his condemnation of a popular colleague means it will be one of unsurpassed difficulty.

He made a brave attempt to cool the situation after England had trained on Wednesday and he had spoken to Flintoff on the phone.

"We all read it in the dressing room and had a good laugh over it," he said. It remains to be seen if the England hierarchy finds it funny.

The teams:

England: Michael Vaughan (Capt.), Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Matthew Prior, Steve Harmison, Ryan Sidebottom, Monty Panesar and Liam Plunkett.

West Indies (from): Daren Ganga (Capt.), Devon Smith, Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo, Fidel Edwards, Marlon Samuels, Corey Collymore, Sylvester Joseph, Runako Morton, Daren Powell, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Darren Sammy and Jerome Taylor.

Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pak) and Billy Bowden (NZ); TV umpire: Peter Hartley; Fourth umpire: Robert Bailey; Match referee: Alan Hurst (Aus).

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