Abstract balls

I've slagged off ex-England cricket captain Michael Vaughan a couple of times on this blog, most recently a couple of weekends ago, for taking himself just a little bit too seriously.

And today I managed to stumble across further damning evidence that the Manchester-born "Yorkshireman" has now officially moved to a new permanent residence - up his own bum.

Here's the text of an article currently on the BBC website:

He bowled over cricket fans during his time as England captain and now Michael Vaughan is hoping his batting skills will hit Cardiff art lovers for six.

The retired batsman may have left the field but he has hung on to his bat and ball - and has used them to create his own collection of abstract art.

Using a technique he calls "artballing" he has batted balls painted with symbolic colours at a blank canvas.

The colourful results are on display at Castle Galleries, Cardiff Bay

Vaughan, who led the England squad to a long-awaited Ashes victory in 2005, said his love of art was cemented in the first part of this decade when cricketing team mate Ashley Giles took him to the art galleries in Shoreditch, during rained off matches in London.

This fuelled his passion for abstract expressionist art and sparked the idea for combining the two art forms of cricket with art.

Escaping to a warehouse in Yorkshire, Vaughan created the art at over 100mph, which he said also provided a therapeutic tonic to his emotional retirement from international cricket.

He said: "It is a very rare thing to be able to follow a career path that you love and the opportunity to combine my two greatest passions - art and cricket - has been a sublime moment in an extraordinary life of highs and low, dreams and sometimes nightmares.

"Artballing captures the drama, speed and excitement of cricket in one precious, dynamic visual moment that, unlike the perfect six, lasts a lifetime."

The former Yorkshire player used his favoured cover drives, square cuts and pull shots to create his art collection.

The From Crease to Canvas pieces include the Day/Night image, where he used white and red balls against a black backdrop and Yes, No, Maybe? featuring red, orange and green to symbolise the universally recognised symbols of stop, go and indecision.

Vaughan's style follows in the footsteps of a long line of artists who practised abstract expressionism or action painting between the 1940s and 60s.

So that, my friends, is "artballing."

And with it, Your Honour, I rest my case for the prosecution.