Vaughan as good as Brearley, says Boycott

With Vaughan set to quit international cricket, Boycott paid rich tribute to the former England skipper, ranking him as one of the best England captains ever.

“I rank him alongside Mike Brearley, because they were both charming people on the surface, but underneath they were as tough as old boots,” Boycott wrote in his column for ‘The Daily Telegraph’.

“When I played for Brearley, he was an expert at blending a diverse group of characters into one successful unit... Brearley understood that each man needed something different if he was going to give his best in the middle.

“The same goes for Vaughan. He treated people as grown-ups, and made allowances for the fact that Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff needed to be given attacking licence,” Boycott observed.

The cricketer-turned-commentator said he was convinced of Vaughan’s leadership right from his Yorkshire days.

“When Vaughan was still coming through the ranks at Yorkshire, there were plenty of signs to suggest that he would make a good leader. I always felt he had a good temperament.

“He was just so cool under pressure. We saw this unflappability in the Ashes series of 2005.

“On that critical final day at Edgbaston, when Australia came so close to winning, he never gave any sign that he was worried.”