Former England national cricket team captain Michael Vaughan has reiterated his insecure jibe at Ollie Pope and labelled him as a good vice-captain who is not good enough to become a full-time captain.
Ollie Pope, 26, has become one of the most talked-about names in English cricket at the moment, not because of his brilliant performances, but actually because of his failures as a batsman.
Ollie Pope, who was appointed vice-captain of the Test team, was named as England’s captain for the home Test series against the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team after Ben Stokes was ruled out of the English summer after suffering a hamstring tear in the Hundred.
However, the captaincy has been of no use to batsman Ollie Pope as he has failed miserably so far in the first two Tests against Sri Lanka.
In the opening clash of the series in Manchester, he registered two 6s, before scoring 1 and 17 in the Lord’s Test. Amid a poor run of form, two things going in Ollie Pope’s favour are that he has received good support from Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, and England won both tests against Sri Lanka to take an unassailable 2-0 lead.
Meanwhile, Michael Vaughan was very outspoken in his assessment of Ollie Pope and speaking on BBC Test Match Special, he said that he doesn’t like Pope as a captain because he is an insecure human being and is not fit for the job. The stand-in captain responded to Vaughan’s comments and said that he was not surprised by the criticism from former cricketers and that he just needs to block out the external noise.
Now, in his latest column for The Telegraph, Vaughan has launched a fresh attack on Pope, saying that not all vice-captains can become captains, citing his example from when he was captain and Trescothick was vice-captain. He explained:
“Ollie Pope is the ideal vice-captain for England. Pope is the perfect foil to Ben Stokes. He’s a very good lad, he trains well and he’s a real team man, someone who can give tactical advice when needed and is happy in the background. But it’s better to keep him in that role, as vice-captain, than to promote him to captain.
“Not every vice-captain is going to be a captain. There are also many captains who cannot be vice-captains, including myself. I wanted to be the leader. I wanted to make the decisions. I didn’t want to be the strategist thinking in the background,” he added.
But I think he’s a bit insecure – Michael Vaughan on Ollie Pope
Michael Vaughan did not stop there and once again called Ollie Pope an insecure human being and added that the ECB only gave him the vice-captaincy to give him a boost.
“I’d love to be proven wrong about Pope, but I think he’s a bit of an insecure guy. I can understand why he was given the vice-captaincy to give him a boost, but he didn’t really need the captaincy at this stage of his career,” Vaughan added.
Michael Vaughan has once again backed Harry Brook as the future captain of the England team, saying that he looks like the natural successor to Ben Stokes. Vaughan also urged the ECB not to give the captaincy to Ollie Pope even when Stokes is injured and suggested that they give the responsibility to Joe Root, the former captain, on an interim basis. He said:
“Looking ahead, Harry Brook would be the best candidate to captain this team – his approach makes him the natural successor to Stokes. But if there is another interim period where Stokes is injured and there are doubts about Brook’s fitness, what’s wrong with giving the captaincy to Joe Root? It wouldn’t be a step backwards.
“Pope has the best player England have ever had sitting next to him in the dressing room. He should sit down with Root and try to develop a process that he can implement day in and day out.”