Former England captain Michael Vaughan has urged James Anderson to return to his old, nasty self when he’s bowling, and ignore what Kevin Pietersen said about him, and the bullying culture within the England dressing room, according to the Telegraph.
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Since Pietersen’s second autobiography hit the shelves last year, Anderson has struggled to establish the kind of form that made him one of the top swing bowlers in the world. The 32-year-old has only taken two wickets so far in the Cricket World Cup, at a frighteningly high average of 91 runs per wicket, and Vaughan believes that Anderson needs to change his attitude.
“I look back at Kevin Pietersen’s book and its allegations of bullying by the bowlers and just wonder if it has changed the way James Anderson is approaching his cricket,” the former batsman said.
Anderson had been in trouble not long before Pietersen’s revelations, having been involved in an altercation with India batsman Ravindra Jadeja, which overshadowed much of the last summer’s tour.
Vaughan revealed that some incidents that sometimes cross the line, can have a major impact on how a player subsequently conducts themselves.
“Those things happen it can change your outlook, even subconsciously. It certainly happened to us after the jelly bean incident against India at Trent Bridge in 2007,” he added.
Despite England’s poor start to the World Cup, they are still in with a very good chance of qualifying for the quarter-final stages, and Vaughan has backed Anderson, and the team as a whole to rediscover their best form.
“It was good to read in Jimmy’s newspaper column this week that that he is going to go back being his normal nasty self on the field. You have to be true to yourself and I worry England have been trying to be too nice rather than play their natural game,” he added.
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