Introduction

Yorkshire has a great tradition of fine opening batsman, and Michael Vaughan has followed Sutcliffe, Hutton and Boycott to full England honours. Unlike those great predecessors, however, he is a Lancastrian by birth. A tall man, he plays with a correct, upright style, favouring the front foot, and with a very straight bat in defence. His greatest strength is his temperament, with excellent powers of concentration.

Vaughan gained representative honours with the England Under-19 team, and made his county debut in 1993. He has toured three times with England A, captaining the team to South Africa and Zimbabwe in 1998-99. His captaincy and batting made an excellent impression on this tour; he averaged over 40 and led a very successful team. An excellent 1998 domestic season was followed by a lack-lustre 1999, and he was a little fortunate to be selected for the 1999-2000 full England squad for the tour of South Africa. He played in four Tests, mostly in the middle order, and despite a moderate average impressed with his calm demeanour in a crisis, and was rewarded with an England contract in 2000.

Injuries kept Vaughan out of the first three Tests of the summer, but when he returned he played an important part in England's thrilling Lord's win. Although a calf injury kept him out of the Test series in Pakistan, he came back to play in the deciding Test in Sri Lanka. He looks to be a long-term fixture in the England side, particularly after being awarded an ECB central contract for 2001.

In the 2002 season Vaughan set the seal on his England credentials, and in doing so cemented an opening partnership with Marcus Trescothick that looks to be the bedrock of England's batting future. Vaughan's second-innings century against Sri Lanka at Lord's helped England save the match after following on, but it was in the series against India that he reaped almost unimaginable riches. Another second-innings century at Lord's (helping England to victory) was followed by two outstanding contributions of 197 and 195 at Trent Bridge and The Oval respectively. Distraught though he reasonably was to miss out on a double century after twice getting so close, four Test hundreds in the summer at last did full justice to his abundant talent, and the measure of the entertainment he provided was made by his captain. "I'd pay to watch him bat," said Nasser Hussain, and surely no one who saw him in 2002 would disagree. He also took useful wickets with his off-spin in both Test and one-day internationals, including that of Sachin Tendulkar with a beauty at Nottingham.

The year was completed with The Ashes tour of Australia with scores of 33 and 0 in the first test, 177 and 41 in the second, 34 and 9 in the third and 11 and 145 in the forth test mean despite England loosing all 4 of the tests Vaughan is now the highest scoring batsmen of the year (1481) - the third highest ever and moved up to 3rd position in the PWC test batting rankings. All this with a hairline fracture of a shoulder gained during the 177 in the second test. This was then followed up with a fantastic start to 2003 with another century score - this time 183 in the victorious fifth test. These performances earning Michael both the Man-of-the-Match and Man-of-the-Series awards.

In June 2003 Michael took over the captaincy of the England one-day team from Nasser Hussain which has since lead to series Pakistan, Zimbabwe and South Africa
One month later, the test captaincy was added to that on the One day team, after England lost the opening test against a touring South Africa side, despite personally scoring 156 off only 169 balls.
The series was eventually ended in a two all tie, with England having to come from behind twice.

2003 also saw England Victorious over Bangladesh in both One-day and test series before a 1-0 defeat in the 3 game series against Sri Lanka, the highlight of which was Michael's 105 in the second test.

2004 saw the Vaughan captained England win the four game test series 3-0 away in the West Indies, this time with a top score in the final test of 140. The one-day competition finished as a draw.
Back on home soil, a 3-0 white wash of the touring New Zealand was completed despite Michael missing the first test with injury, and part of the second day of the second test at Headingley when he rushed back to Sheffield to be present at the birth of his daughter, Tallulah Grace.

Englands winter tour took them to South Africa, where again England were victorious, winning the five match test series -1, with Michaels personal highlights been the 82 not out followed by 54 in the forth of the tests. England were not so sucessful in the one day series, losing 4-1 dispite having won the first and then drawn the second with wicketkeeper, Geraint Jones stumping Andew Hall with the very final ball.

The past few tours showed that England were becoming a force to be reckoned with in both forms of the international game, managing to sucessfully introduce younger players such as Kevin Pieterson, Simon Jones and Andrew Strauss to the more experienced Trescothick and Giles.

2005 would provide Vaughan's English lions with there biggest test to date - Australia and the all important Ashes.
Before that though would come a home test series against Bangladesh. England won the first by more than an innings with Vaughan and Trescothick scoring more than 300 beween them.