Moores upset as Vaughan rocks England's boat

Olive branches are not easy to come by in Manchester but Michael Vaughan will be under pressure to gather as many as he can this morning after his extraordinary broadside against Andrew Flintoff threatened to destroy the England team's recovery after their disastrous winter.

Vaughan's comments in the build-up to the Old Trafford Test - on Flintoff's home ground - provoked fury from Lancashire, whose chief executive, Jim Cumbes, described the England captain's behaviour as "despicable".

The England coach, Peter Moores, was more measured in his reaction but is inwardly seething over the attack, which flew in the face of his own insistence that England's Ashes and World Cup humiliations should be consigned to the past. "What has gone has gone," Moores said.

Vaughan used an interview yesterday to publicly blame Flintoff - more specifically his drunken rescue from a drifting pedalo at the start of the tournament - for England's poor performance in the World Cup, as well as suggesting the Lancashire player was not up to the job of leading the side in Australia, where he stood in as captain during Vaughan's absence through injury.

He said the so-called "Fredalo" incident "affected the team, affected morale" and admitted that the decision to strip Flintoff of the vice-captaincy was made with his support.

Vaughan was said last night to be "disappointed" with the way his words had been presented but there was nothing ambiguous about the sentiments conveyed and he will be asked by Moores to waste no time in clearing the air with Flintoff to avoid a damaging dressing room rift.

Moores stopped short of issuing Vaughan with a public slap on the wrists but defended Flintoff and will not be pleased with the timing of Vaughan's comments after England's thrashing of the West Indies in the second Test at Headingley last month. The victory put England 1-0 up in the series and appeared to go some way to repairing the damage done to morale by a disastrous winter.

"We're building at the moment and we know the team spirit is important," Moores said. "We also know that Fred is fantastic for team spirit. The passion he brings to playing for England lifts everybody and Michael knows that. I wasn't around [in the winter] and I can only comment on what I see and at the moment we have a buzz going in the dressing room, which is fantastic. I said from the very start there would be a clean slate, so what has gone has gone."

But his coded dismay was nothing next to the anger expressed by Cumbes, who fears Flintoff will be so upset by what Vaughan said he could decide to stay away from the England dressing room tomorrow.

"I would think Fred will be upset," Cumbes said. "He is recovering from his [ankle] operation, he is desperate to get back playing cricket again, desperate to do his best for England again and this is like a kick in the teeth.

"He is a team man and will want to show his support. He loves to be with the lads, to be in the dressing room, fooling around like a big daft dog but he will be hurt by this. I think we might see in the next couple of days how badly by whether he turns up or not.

"I can understand what Michael is saying. Fred knows he stepped out of line. But once it is over you just get on with it and if you have something to say in a team situation you keep it in the dressing room. What Vaughan has done is completely out of order, it is despicable, it stinks.

"Fred was a talisman in the Ashes series in 2005. You could almost say that Fred is responsible for 11 or so people getting gongs in that series, Michael Vaughan amongst them. He went out to Australia, he was asked to captain the side, he was asked to lead the bowling, lead the batting. This fellow has given blood for England and I think it is appalling that he has been treated in this fashion.

"What happened in the Caribbean will not have been a problem for the players. If anything they close ranks in situations like that. You help your mates, you don't shoot them down."

Flintoff, who underwent surgery last week and will miss the West Indies series, is due to join the England players this morning but Moores said he was not worried about Flintoff's future relationship with the captain.

"I know both lads, I know they both get on and work well together and to me I see it as paper talk," he said. "It is the press that are talking about it and not us. We had a good result at Headingley and we've got a big Test match here because there's a chance of us winning the series so everyone is just so focussed on this. There is no time to think about anything other than winning this next Test."

* Daren Ganga will replace the injured Ramnaresh Sarwan as West Indies' captain for the remaining Tests.