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ILLINGWORTH: You're a long time retired!
Michael Vaughan has retired and he will certainly always have a good playing record and in terms of Test matches wins with England – no-one can take that away from him.
One thing I would say about him, in terms of winning matches, there is a difference between going 30 and 40 years back and looking at Tests and now. You finish more games now.
Back in the old days, if you had a five-match series, you'd be lucky not to lose two to rain. The coverings are so much better now and time which is lost is often made up. There were far more drawn matches in years gone by.
Nevertheless, Michael's got a very good career record and the lad can retire thinking he's done well and I think he will. But, in terms of retirement, you're a long time retired! I was 46 when I finished playing at Leicester and then I came back and finished at Yorkshire when I was 50 or 51.
The likes of Geoff Boycott and Brian Close both did the same, and played into their forties, and I kept on going even further because I just loved the game.
I would have missed it too much.
I noticed that Michael has said that as a senior player, you need as much enthusiasm, if not more than the young players, to keep going. That's true, but I think I always had that.
Michael is going and it may be for outside reasons – better business opportunities or something – but he doesn't feel that same way, although a month ago I thought he wanted to keep playing because he enjoyed it.
All I'll say to him is that there's no substitute for playing. You can go into the commentary box, management, whatever you want – but nothing beats playing. I know I made the right decision in playing as long as I could play, but it's different when you've lost that enthusiasm for the game.
There's nothing worse than an old player who has lost his enthusiasm. I saw that when I first went to Leicester where I had two or three players who had the best seasons they've ever had with me in the first year, but then had to go because they'd lost their enthusiasm – they'd rather it rained so they could have a day off.
Yes Michael's knee has been bad, though only he knows how bad it is, but I still think he could have gone and played county cricket because when Michael was at his best, he was really good to watch.
****
Don't trim Tests
I'VE read with interest the talk about reverting to four-day Test matches instead of five – but it's something I'm very wary about.
It's 90 overs in a day these days but if you played long enough, say 100 overs or so, you could maybe fit in enough overs.
But what I wouldn't want is for all this to be for the benefit of Twenty20. And the thing with four-day Tests is that if you have a bad day, then you won't finish Test matches.
The fifth day in a Test is a bonus day to make sure you do finish. It'd be sad if things went to four days, to be honest.
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