The apocalyptic visions of Michael Vaughan

William Blake had them, and so did William Butler Yeats. Dante had them, and the Book of Revelation is full of them. No surprise then, that the great seer Michael Vaughan is getting them too: visions of heaven and visions of hell, of rough beasts slouching towards Bethlehem and the vast and endless darkness of Urizen, and...

Well okay, the details aren't quite clear at the moment, but according to Cricinfo, the 146th Wisden Almanack, published today with that great rough beast Andrew Flintoff on the cover, includes 'Michael Vaughan, former England captain, revealing an apocalyptic vision of  cricket's future, with players serving as mercenaries and flying from one Twenty20 tournament to another without playing Test matches'.

Bloody hell! Wisden's certainly livening up! Haven't actually read it yet, but I see it clearly now, Vaughany, eyes wide and fixed on a distant horizon, smashed out of his mind on Absinthe, hitting them well in the nets yet even inbetween each shot seeing these vast winged batsmen of the near-future flying in, huge bats gripped in clawed hands, sending ball after ball into the bubbling fires at the boundary's edge before rising, hawklike into the smoking, bloody skies and soaring off to play somewhere else, deaf to Vaughan's cries as he scoops his own eyes out with spoons to stop himself seeing this fresh, fresh hell...

Yeah, well, it's better than anything he's filed for the Telegraph recently, but it's all a bit oversold, isn't it? 

Anyway, MPV will have more on his mind tomorrow morning when, weather permitting, he plays for MCC and shows us what he's got. The fact that the press box will be full for the first strand of the summer's Ashes story mitigates his vision slightly.