Michael Vaughan drops Australian retirement ‘whispers’

England cricket great Michael Vaughan has dropped a bombshell retirement rumour about the Ashes series as Pat Cummins’ captaincy is once again questioned.

Former England Test captain Michael Vaughan has dropped a rumour that if true, would see the biggest retirement upheaval in the Australian cricket team for almost 20 years.

Vaughan claimed on Fox Cricket’s fifth Test preview that rumours had been flying around the press box during the fourth Test that both David Warner and Steve Smith were set to play their final Tests for Australia at The Oval.

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“Well, it’s always the case on a rainy day when the journos get a bit bored, and you start talking to a few. But the whisper was and I have no idea where they’re getting this whisper, but that Warner, if he plays at The Oval, it’ll probably be his last,” Vaughan said on Fox Cricket.

“Again, I’m not too sure where they’ve got that. And quite a strong whisper was about Steve Smith that it could be his last time out for Australia at The Oval as well. Again, I’ve not seen that personally, but it’s just the whisper and the gossip.

“It might just be the rain in Manchester that gets people talking, but that was the talk of the press box yesterday that a couple of Australian legends, greats might call it a day.”

News Corp’s Ben Horne reported there are no plans for the Australians to make any retirement announcements for the series finale, and that sources close to the Australian camp say the whispers are wide of the mark.

Warner has struggled with the bat in recent years. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

Vaughan also admitted that the rumours were unsubstantiated.

While batters Michael Clarke and Chris Rogers retired together at the end of the 2015 Ashes series, a simultaneous retirement from Smith and Warner would mark the most significant personnel upheaval in the Australian side since the 2006-07 Ashes, which saw the retirements of Test legends Justin Langer, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Damien Martyn, alongside decorated coach John Buchanan.

It marked the end of a golden era of Australian cricket, seeing the Test side drop to their lowest ranking since the World Series Cricket and rebel tour-ravaged sides of the 1980s.

It also sent the nation on a desperate four-year search for a spinner to replace Warne’s greatness in which eight different tweakers were handed Test debuts before Nathan Lyon cemented himself as the nation’s number one option.

The rumours have even less weight in light of the fact that senior batters Warner and Usman Khawaja, who grew up playing together as juniors in Sydney, have made a pact to not retire within the same period of time, so as to not leave the Australian side with the transitional problems of the mid-2000s.

“For us it’s about not leaving this team with a big hole,” Warner told Fox Cricket earlier this year.

“I know through those five-year transition period when a lot of the greats left, they’re big holes to fill with the amount of games you play.

“We always talk about games played and how much that means into a team’s performance and perspective with experience. You can’t fill that void.”

Steve Smith has signalled before his looming retirement. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

The rumours emerge as former Australian Test batter Mark Waugh questioned whether Pat Cummins is the right man to take Australia forward as captain amid criticism over his tactical decision-making during the fourth Test.

“I think in India we saw Pat struggle in a couple of Test matches, and then in this series, I think he’s struggled nearly in every Test match,” the former selector said on Fox Cricket.

“We’ve got a bit lucky leading this series 2-1. We probably should have lost Edgbaston and we probably would have lost Old Trafford so that makes it 3-1 if things had gone normally.

“I just think he’s looked tired. He’s looked frazzled. It’s affecting his bowling, his captaincy, it’s affecting his fielding. He’s dropped catches, and you don’t want that from potentially the best cricketer in your team.

“So I think moving forward they’re going to have to think long and hard about this. Is Pat Cummins the right man for the long-term captaincy? Because when it’s tough I don’t think he is.

“I think he’s OK when it’s easy and he doesn’t have to think too much, but it’s a real question mark.”

The trio are Australia’s three most critical players. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Waugh has previously made remarks concerned about the impact that captaincy has on Cummins’ bowling, and reiterated those concerns.

“This is the problem with him being captain. If he wasn’t captain I’d say he would definitely rest in this Test match,” he said.

“I think mentally he just looked burnt out in the field. There was so much pressure on him captaining the side and field placements and his own bowling suffered.

“He dropped catches in the field, he wasn’t concentrating, he got out first ball with the bat on the second day.

“You can see it’s affecting him and you don’t want that to happen to Pat Cummins because he’s a key player. You don’t want him burning out quickly.

“It’s going to be an interesting one to see how long that captaincy does last in his lap.

“I don’t know why this is happening, whether Pat Cummins is not getting the support on the field, whether he is just forgetting what they had planned pre-game, or whether the knowledge just isn’t good enough under pressure (from senior figures in the camp).”

Former Victorian wicketkeeper Darren Berry predicted during the Fourth Test that Cummins “will resign from the captaincy” after the series, having struggled tactically throughout.

Head coach Andrew McDonald have rubbished Berry’s claims, with McDonald calling the remarks “most interesting”.

“I was across those comments from Darren,” McDonald told the Nine papers.

“They were most interesting. What I would say is leadership takes on all different shapes and forms.

“If we’re living and dying in the world of tactics only, then I think it’s fair and reasonable to critique some of the execution and tactics that we implemented. But to go as far as suggesting that the captain resign post-series I think is a bit far-fetched. There’s opinions that we respect and opinions that we don’t.”

Originally published as Michael Vaughan drops Australian retirement ‘whispers’