Ashes Winning Capt Vaughan Retires

Ashes-winning cricket captain Michael Vaughan has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.

He said it had been a hard decision but he realised that his form was no longer good enough and that he needed to make way for younger players to come through for the good of the game.

The 34-year-old Yorkshire batsman departs the international scene as England's most successful Test captain of all time - with 26 wins from his 51 matches in charge.

His achievements also include leading England to their first Ashes victory against Australia for 18 years in 2005; a first Test series win in South Africa for forty years - also in 2005 - and presiding over eight consecutive Test wins in 2004.

As a batsman, he scored 18 Test hundreds for England following his debut in 1999 and was ranked the number one batsman in the world following the 2002/3 Ashes Series in Australia in which he made 633 runs including three centuries.

He told reporters at Edgabston he nearly quit some months ago but wanted to give it one last shot at getting in this year's Ashes squad but he said: "I haven't been playing well enough."

He was also unhappy with his club form: "They always say that in the dressing room the senior players have to be the most enthusiastic.

"I just started feeling that in the Yorkshire dressing room I wasn't the most enthusiastic. That was the stage when I knew I had to move over."

Vaughan said it was hard to pick just one career highlight but England winning the Ashes in 2005 stood out.

"The 2005 Ashes win was special but it was also the build-up two years before that was special; I had to get a team into a unit and I was fortunate to get a team of very good players, so the 2005 Ashes was a pinnacle," he said.

"We captured the nation and cricket hadn't captured the nation for a very long time."

Commenting on his decision, English Cricket Board chief executive David Collier praised Vaughan for "his immense contribution" to the England team's success.

"His achievement in leading England to victory against the number one ranked team in the world, Australia in 2005, was arguably the finest by any England captain in the modern era," he said.

England captain Andrew Strauss said he counted Vaughan as a good friend as well as a team-mate and knew it had been a tough decision for him to stand down.

"I learned a great deal from watching him captain the side for five years at close hand and his ability to identify a new strategy for outwitting the opposition or bring the best out of his own players was a priceless asset," he added.