But it has brought further embarrassment for Vaughan, whose leadership this summer has suffered the distraction first of the “Fredalo” affair, for which he had to issue a personal apology over remarks made in an interview, and now this, in which he has felt obliged to apologise on behalf of his team.
“We weren’t throwing jelly beans at Zaheer from the slip cordon but I think two were left on the floor by the stumps at the drinks interval,” he said yesterday. “I guess one of the players might have left them as a little bit of a prank for the new batsmen and if it offended him in a huge way we apologise for that.”
Vaughan was keen to leave the incident behind. “It has been blown out of proportion because it is a great story,” he added. “But in the bigger picture it is not the reason we lost the game. If Zaheer says he was inspired by it I would say that he bowled pretty well in the first innings too and at Lord’s.”
Vaughan denied that England’s general behaviour, which brought criticism of James Anderson among others for aiming verbal volleys at opponents, had gone too far.
“I don’t think we stepped over the line,” he said. “Maybe we said a few things too much in the first innings but it’s called gamesmanship, I don’t think we’ve said anything untoward. We are just trying to play tough cricket and that’s what most teams do at this level.”
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