da dobrowin： Vaughan underplays the importance of the Ashes in the light of Thursday’s terrorist attacks
da 888： Cricinfo staff09-Jul-2005
Vaughan: ‘Ifour victory over Australia has made a few people happy then that’s great.’ © Getty Images
Michael Vaughan, the England captain, has said that the elation of beatingAustralia at Headingley had been short lived in the aftermath of theLondon bomb blasts that left at least 70 dead and over 700 injured. Withthe sporting fraternity obsessed with the Ashes, Vaughan underplayed theimportance of the series in the light of Thursday’s terrorist attacks. Hesaid, “Cricket is not that important when you see those things. Normallywe wouldn’t have had the televisions on in the dressing-room, but we hadto keep them on because there were people that were in London that we allknow.AFP also quoted Vaughan as saying: “We haven’t tried to get too involvedin it, but we are trying to put things in perspective and we played a gameof cricket and there are far more important things in life than cricket.”The attacks occurred a day after London was awarded the 2012 OlympicGames, curtailing much of the celebrations. Vaughan shared the nation’sexcitement at the prospect of being host to the Olympics, and said, “Wewere thrilled for London getting the Olympics just the day before and Ithink it’s one of the best things to happen to English sport for manyyears. Then we arrived at the ground to see those scenes in London and itput sport and life in general really into perspective.”He hoped that his team’s success against Australia would alleviate some ofthe sorrow caused by the attacks. He said: “There’s obviously a lot ofunhappiness in London and around the country after what happened, but ifour victory over Australia has made a few people happy then that’s great.”As the NatWest Challenge moves to London for the last two games,authorities at Lord’s and The Oval said that both matches would take placeas scheduled, amid heightened security.
