Willis calls for Vaughan axe

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, April 18, 2007 (AFP) - Former England captain Bob Willis demanded Michael Vaughan be axed as skipper following the team's World Cup exit.







Willis, now a TV pundit, said coach Duncan Fletcher and chairman of selectors David Graveney should also be removed from their postitions after South Africa's thumping nine-wicket win condemned Vaughan's men to a humiliating World Cup exit.

Ian Botham, another captain, added his voice to the furore insisting that Fletcher should be the man to carry the can.

Willis also hit out at the make-up of the county game in England as well as the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) who he accused of being obsessed with Test match cricket and forcing the one-day game down its list of priorities.

"They haven't given it the priority it deserves.

Latterly Duncan Fletcher has called for England to play more one-day internationals and eventually the ECB has ceded to that request. They are playing more and more," Willis told Sky Sports.

"Graveney, Fletcher and Vaughan - they've all got to go.

"We have got to start planning now for the next World Cup, which is on the sub-continent. They shou