Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Michael Vaughan's contribution to English cricket goes far beyond his excellent record as captain.
His leadership qualities and batting prowess have already elevated him to legendary status. What made him special though was the positive spirit he instilled in the team.
He made his team enjoy their cricket. Gone was the era when staid, often grumpy English cricketers gave in too easily in adversity.
Even a good performance was greeted with muted celebrations. Vaughan's predecessor Nasser Hussain at least got the team to be a little tougher. But that vital zing was missing.
Turn back the clock to the Ashes series in England in 2005. That series was one of England's finest and Vaughan was the major contributor to that amazing victory against a tough Australian side.
Vaughan decided that the only way to beat the Aussies was to go hard at them. It worked. There were no more slouching shoulders among the English cricketers.
They strode on to battle the Old Enemy. There was a sense of pride and joy in what they did. And the huge celebrations reflected the new spirit.
The captain made big scores in the series. Importantly, he got an underperforming, dormant Andrew Flintoff to finally become a match winner.
Vaughan believed in his players and was willing to fight for them. That made him very special to the team.
England have not managed to reach those heights since the series. But the team has displayed good body language whenever they have played.
Vaughan had always been proactive. He wasn't the type who would stand in the slips, chewing gum with a deadpan look on his face, as many English captains did.
The pressure of injury, poor form and bad press finally got to Vaughan. Though England fared badly in the series against South Africa, the way Paul Collingwood came back to form with a magnificent century to give his team some hope was a testimony to Vaughan's mantra.
Kevin Pieterson is the right choice to move the team forward. He lacks the finesse of Vaughan but is a competitor to the core.
He hates to be second best in whatever he does. That will help him in his new role.
Pieterson has a tough task ahead of him. He has a good side to play with which will help.
It will be the external factors which will be hard to face. The popular English Press has been known to spew venom at the slightest opportunity.
There are many cricket pundits who give vent to their own inadequacies by going after the man in charge in their columns. An extrovert like Pieterson is open to all forms of attack from the pack.
English cricket needs to move on and Pieterson has the job to push it back to the top. Using the Vaughan formula will certainly ease most of his headaches.
