Vaughan needs to lead the way

The best captains in any sporting contest are those who lead from the front.
And that's exactly what Michael Vaughan needs to do if England are to have any chance of beating Australia in the second Ashes test which gets under way at Edgbaston tonight.
No one can debate that Vaughan is a top order batsman of the highest quality.
He has scored big runs against some of the world's finest bowlers but his nemesis is clearly Australia's pace bowling great Glenn McGrath.
And no one knows it better than McGrath, who has actually gone public on how he intends to make the current Ashes series a misery for the England skipper.
It was McGrath who claimed Vaughan's scalp in the first innings of the first test at Lord's, clean bowling him with a ball which cut back off the pitch and beat him all ends up.
Then in the second "dig" it was McGrath's partner in crime, Brett Lee, who skittled Vaughan's stumps but not before McGrath had him playing at fresh air on more than one occasion.
The Vaughan confidence should have been restored to some degree by an innings for Yorkshire against Kent in a one-day match last week.
There he made an unbeaten 116 from 129 balls and, from all accounts, looked the master of every situation.
Trouble for Vaughan though was than Kent did not have a McGrath in their attack.
The Aussie strike bowler may not be the most lethal of "quickies" in terms of pace but even at the relatively advanced age of 35 there is none better when it comes to control.
Time after time he puts the ball in virtually the same place but much more than that, he also has the ability to take it away or bring it back off the pitch.
No match illustrated that better than the Lords test.
In the first innings there McGrath cut deliveries away to grab the wickets of the two left handed English openers, Trescothick and Strauss, while the ball was moving in the completely opposite direction when he removed not only Vaughan but also Bell and Flintoff.
You've probably all heard the saying "never give a sucker an even break" and Vaughan needs to have that firmly imprinted in his mind as he fronts up to McGrath at Edgbaston.
The Aussies are never short of a word or two of "advice" for batsmen and you can wager they will be aiming plenty of barbs at Vaughan, especially when it is McGrath bearing down on him.
Just how Vaughan copes under that pressure could well decide England's fate, not only in the second test but in the next three as well.
It's a huge burden on his shoulders but that's when "real" captains excel, don't they?