Time to Declare: My Autobiography

by Michael Vaughan

Michael Vaughan tells the full, compelling story of a remarkable career—from his early days at Yorkshire to his emergence as a world-class batsman; from the successful partnership with Duncan Fletcher that culminated in the raising of the urn at The Oval in 2005, to the recurring injuries that ultimately forced his retirement. With the insight that helped him bring the best out of personalities as different as Freddie Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen, and Steve Harmison, the winner of a record 26 Tests as England captain shares his views on the state of cricket today and gives a frank assessment of fellow players, coaches, and administrators. He concludes with praise for the achievements of the 2009 Ashes-winning England team. Entertaining, forthright, and surprisingly candid, Time to Declare is essential reading for all cricket lovers—the definitive account of the career of one of the modern game's most influential characters.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

466 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Michael Paul Vaughan OBE is a retired cricketer who represented Yorkshire and England. A classically elegant right-handed batsman and occasional off-spinner, Vaughan was ranked the best batsman in the world following the 2002/3 Ashes, in which he scored 633 runs, including three centuries. Vaughan was an opening batsman and forged a successful England opening partnership with Marcus Trescothick, although he had often batted in the middle order for England. He was the captain of the England team when it regained the Ashes in 2005, eighteen years after having last won the trophy.

Reviews

[Russ King · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, obviously much more so for fans of cricket, especially fans of English cricket, even more especially if you remember the summer of 2005 where England finally won The Ashes off Australia, when people were poking their heads into pubs as they passed to check on the score during what has been classed by many as the greatest test series of all time.

Vaughan (or his biographer?) has a relaxed style and is candid enough without being too vain or making criticisms for the sake of it. He also makes interesting observations on teamwork, bringing the best out of people and the importance of having characters within a team rather than simply those who are the best at their job.

I was interested to note that this management style was one that I had been working under until there was a change of management. It was not too surprising that performance and motivation of the teams reduced after the change of style of that team, like the England Ashes team is now split up but all pushing forward in different areas.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the things I enjoyed about this is that it felt a lot less bland than any sporting biographies, with Vaughan being willing to talk about where he saw things had gone wrong and how to tried to approach things differently. It also gives a good insight into the 2015 Ashes.

I did think, however, that he spends a lot of time comparing himself to Nasser Hussain, in a way that comes off as pretty insecure. I certainly got the impression that what Nasser would or would not do in a situation had far more bearing on his decisions that was particularly healthy.

[Akhilesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting take on how Vaughan dealt with captaincy, injuries, other players and being a premier England test opener. Some of it is a little drab but for the most part it was a fascinating perspective into the life of a modern day (pre IPL) cricketer. He is very frank in many issues including his fielding( he sucked), his inability to score big in ODI cricket and his way of dealing with larger than life players like Flintoff and KP.The chapters on Ashes 2005 are not as riveting as i thought they would be, not much background detail apart from how they were drunk after every win. The book could have been a little shorter. Definitely an interesting read.

[Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty standard sporting memoir, detailing Vaughan's progression from schoolboy cricketer to England captain. The ghostwriter Mike Dickson does a good job of conveying Vaughan's own voice in the text and while simple enough and without any real controversy, there's a good insight into the internal workings of the international cricket setup in England and how the personal relationships between a few key people can make or break the national side's successes.