Michael Vaughan says victory in the West Indies will enable a unified England squad to move forward.
Ashes aim for Vaughan after missing out on tour
Michael Vaughan says England can banish the recent drama surrounding Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores by winning in the Caribbean.
Yorkshire batsman Vaughan, overlooked for the upcoming three Test tour against the West Indies, believes new captain Andrew Strauss is the right man to take England forward after Pietersen quit as captain and coach Moores was sacked almost a fortnight ago.
"I think it was very sad," Vaughan told
Sky Sports News. "I don't think anyone came out of it particularly well at all. The one thing the side has to do now is move forward.
"I believe Andrew Strauss will be a very good captain, Kevin Pietersen will go out and score many runs. I really believe he can be the No 1 player in the world for a sustained period.
"Strauss and Andy Flower have got an opportunity to create a relationship. Win in the Caribbean and who knows? We really do have to look forward. Now we have to clear the air.
"I think that first Test in Jamaica will be massive; there is always a result there so it is important that we get off to a start and if we do that and win then a lot of what has happened will be forgotten."
Runs vital
Ian Bell and Owais Shah will contest the No 3 batting spot in the Caribbean after national selector Geoff Miller chose to overlook Vaughan and give him a chance to prove his form during pre-season with Yorkshire.
"There were rumours that I might have gone to the West Indies but I totally agree with the selectors and the management in not picking me for the tour," reflected Vaughan.
"I probably would not have been able to play because I hadn't hit enough balls or trained as hard as I could because I never expected to go.
"This gives me a really good opportunity to spend the pre-season with Yorkshire; we go to Abu Dhabi in March and play a number of games and then in April we have many pre-season games.
"I know what I have to do, I have to score runs, and this is probably the ideal thing for me to have three months training and preparing.
"The Ashes would be great. I'd love to play in the Ashes Test at Headingley - I've never played against Australia at my home ground so that's a little goal I've set myself.
"I've got to go out and score runs; Abu Dhabi is a good opportunity to do that and then come back and start the season well. There is the Lions game versus the champions which hopefully I can force my way into and just do as well as I can to force my way back in.
"I obviously understand that if the team go to the West Indies and do well then it is going to be difficult but if you score runs opportunities are always created."
Pinnacle
Vaughan was one of four former England captains to attend an ECB summit meeting in Leicestershire on Monday, at which the future of Test and limited overs cricket was discussed.
"The message is very clear, not just from the panel but the floor, that Test cricket must remain the pinnacle," said Vaughan. "It's part of our history, tradition but there are also areas that we need to improve.
"It's looking like playing the best teams more regularly, talk of maybe a championship style process, a little bit about the over rates how to improve those and many things about technology - Simon Taufel, the No 1 umpire in the world is talking about that.
"I enjoy Twenty20 cricket whether it's international or domestic; I thought the World Twenty20 in South Africa was fantastic. I think we would probably all agree that the Caribbean 50-over World Cup went on a little bit too long and wasn't quite the spectacle we would have liked.
"I guess we have to try and look at fitting all these things in; it's about creating a calendar. We are probably playing too much cricket at the moment and making sure that the administrators come up with the right formula to make sure that cricket moves forward."
