LONDON, Oct 13: England captain Michael Vaughan has attacked his South African opposite number Graeme Smith for being childish, dictatorial and something of a schoolboy bully.

In extracts from his forthcoming book published in the Daily Mail, Vaughan said that during England’s 2004-2005 tour of South Africa, Smith had continually called him “queer” and labelled all-rounder Andrew Flintoff a “big baby”.

“I found it odd and childish, the kind of thing you’d say in the playground,” Vaughan was quoted as saying.

Smith later apologised for his slurs.

Vaughan, whose side won the South African Test series before returning to lead England to Ashes victory, said he first met Smith when, as a 22-year-old, he led his first tour to England in 2003. Some of his more experienced players found their young captain “a bit dictatorial”, Vaughan said.

“I think he came in with a schoolboy-bullying style of captaincy... and I’m not sure some of the senior guys responded well to that,” he said.

Vaughan also accused Smith of playing to the cameras during matches, becoming animated if he was in television shot.

The England captain said he lost respect for Smith after the South African appeared as a witness against him when he was fined his match fee for talking about the umpires’ interpretation of bad light rules during the fourth Test in Johannesburg last January.

“Whatever the situation I know that I would never put myself in a position where I would be acting as a witness against an opposing captain...

“I lost my whole match fee and from that moment on my relationship with Smith became very frosty.”—Reuters