Michael Vaughan's Biography

Michael Vaughan was a leading batsman and was captain of England.

Vaughan made his debut for Yorkshire in 1993 and was voted the Cricket Society's most promising young cricketer. He also became Captain of England's Under-19 team.

Vaughan told The Telegraph about his early days at Yorkshire:

"Discipline has always been big at Yorkshire. You have to shave every day and look smart, and if you were late you were fined. They really drilled it into you too.

"It was a hard dressing room when I first came into it, with some very selfish people who didn't want me there, who gave me the wrong advice and tried to get me into trouble. But there were three or four people - Martyn Moxon, Phil Carrick, Peter Hartley and later Darren Gough - who did put their arm round me and helped me along, and without them I'd have been on the scrapheap."

Michael Vaughan made his Test debut for England against South Africa at Johannesburg in the 1999-2000 season.

In 2001, against Pakistan, Vaughan hit his maiden Test century. In the same year his county, Yorkshire, won their first Championship title for over thirty years.

2002 saw a succession of test centuries and Vaughan scored 1481 test match runs with an average of 61.7, including six hundreds. It was a record total by an England batsman and second only to Viv Richards.

In 2003 Michael Vaughan initially took on the role of England's one-day captain after Nasser Hussain's resignation and then took over the England captaincy in Tests.

Known for his composed style of leadership, Vaughan was nicknamed Virgil (after the Thunderbirds character) by his team-mates.

Vaughan's England won a record eight successive Tests in 2004 and they climbed to second in the Test rankings.

At Test level, Vaughan became England's most prolific batsman since Graham Gooch.

The highlight of Michael Vaughan's career came with the 2005 Ashes, where he captained England to an exciting 2-1 triumph against Australia.

Vaughan said at The Oval after the series was finally won:

"It's been an emotional summer of cricket, fantastic for the game. I can't praise the players and management enough."

Although his performance with the bat did not compare with the likes of Kevin Pietersen or Freddie Flintoff, nevertheless Vaughan's captaincy was a crucial part of the Ashes victory and many pundits viewed Vaughan's approach as superior to that of his Australian counterpart, Ricky Ponting.

Michael Vaughan was kept out of the 2006 series where Australia regained the Ashes through a knee injury. He returned to cricket in the ODI against Australia on 9 January 2007 and seemed to be back to fitness.

Vaughan's return to fitness and form continued and, in June 2007, when England won the third Test against West Indies it meant that Vaughan overtook Peter May as England's most successful Test captain with 21 wins.

Michael Vaughan's percentage of victories, 21 wins from 35 Tests, i.e 60%, was also impressive, not just bettering Peter May (49%), but far superior to modern England captains like Nasser Hussain (38%) and Michael Atherton (24%).

Michael Vaughan had a relatively poor record since his return from injury in 2007 but he hit a century in the first test for England against New Zealand in May 2008. It meant that Michael Vaughan had equalled Graham Gooch's record of six centuries at Lord's.

On 3 August 2008, an emotional Michael Vaughan stood down as England captain. He felt he was not in the right frame of mind to lead England and he believed that the decision would help prolong his career.

On 30 June 2009, Michael Vaughan announced that he was retiring from professional cricket.

He subsequently became a frequent pundit on Test Match Special and other cricket shows.

In 2012, he was paired with Natalie Lowe in Strictly Come Dancing. They were the ninth couple to be voted off.

Previously, England cricketers Mark Ramprakash and Darren Gough had been victorious on Strictly.

In 2021, it was revealed that Michael Vaughan would not be involved in the BBC's coverage of the Ashes after he was named in Yorkshire's report into Azeem Rafiq's claims of racism at the club.

Vaughan denied the allegations. He was later cleared of using racist language.