England call on Gough for NZ tour

And there he was, again. Chest puffed out. Shoulders back. Blueeyed. Beaming smile. Outwardly confident, and full of anecdotes as Yorkshiremen are. Aged 49, Darren Gough is back as England’s bowling coach for the twotest series against New Zealand.

The morning after England’s Super Over victory, and 3-2 series win against New Zealand, had been miserable to that point. More than two hours’ drive through lashing rain from Auckland past verdant hills, swelling creeks, logging lorries and fields of cattle. If architects never inhabit the buildings they design, administrators never go on the tours they schedule: could not the England players and coaches have been allowed 24 hours to savour their T20 success?

But there was Gough waiting in the quiet New Zealand town of Whangarei, beaming and talking away like the radio show host he normally is, and you could see why England’s head coach, Chris

Silverwood, had appointed him.

The team hotel is a motor inn, the rain lashed down, the sights to be seen in Whangarei add up to little more than a clock factory and the port from where logs are shipped to China; yet Gough somehow lit up the place.

‘‘He’s got a lot of experience, played all around the world,’’ said Silverwood, when asked to explain why he had chosen a former Yorkshire team-mate as England’s bowling consultant.

‘‘I know what energy he brings to the dressing room from playing with him, and I thought it would be a great experience for the younger fast bowlers to talk to him, about the skills he had – yorkers at the death. The skills he was good at then are still very relevant today, so why not?’’

Gough was forced to develop these skills ahead of his time because he is less than 6ft tall and could not get the same bounce as his opening partner, Andrew Caddick. Instead, he was the first England bowler to master reverse-swing.

In my observation, no England bowler – only Pakistan’s masters such as Imran Khan, Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram – has reversed the ball as much as Gough did in the Lord’s test of 1994 against South Africa.

It is one of cricket’s great shames that Gough never played a test in the West Indies: their crowds – in the days of Caribbean test crowds – would have responded to him as Australian crowds did, when Gough wore his heart on his sleeve and took the fight with bat and ball to the world’s best team.

Is it not a bit cosy though for England’s coaching team to consist of Silverwood and his old team-mate, along with Graham Thorpe and Paul Collingwood – would some ideas from outside come amiss?

Of course not; but nobody who wants a home life, and a semblance of normality, would want such a job full time and to live out of a suitcase 11 months a year.

As Silverwood said, after winning his first assignment then getting on the road next morning: ‘‘We don’t like to rest – it’s against the rules apparently.’’

He added: ‘‘It’s difficult to appoint a permanent guy. We’re buzzing around, it’s difficult to do the due process. So more than likely we’ll look to bring someone in to cover that period with a view of taking a further look at certain people in a longer term way.’’

Shane Bond, the former New Zealand fast bowler, is a prime candidate for certain assignments. If the rain persists, it will mar the first of England’s two warm-ups, a two-day game starting tomorrow. Telegraph