Darren Gough is an England fast bowler looking for a wicket with every ball
CRICKET: David Hopps
DARREN GOUGH’s emotive walk out to bat during the Headingley test provoked the most fervent outbreak of Yorkshire pride since Geoffrey Boycott anointed his own flock with his 100th first-class century 17 years ago. In fact, the acclaim for Gough was probably the greater: everybody applauded.
Even though it was 13 years since a Yorkshire crowd paid homage to one of its own, the response was startling. They rose to their feet, hooted, hollered and clapped until their hands were sore.
All for a young man in only his third test. Yorkshire folk, circa 1963, must have begun to be born as old softies. In a harsher age Gough’s burst into prominence would have been deemed worthy of nothing more than a mistrustful doff of the cap. Even his ambitions — “100 test wickets and to win something, anything, with Yorkshire” — represent the modest hopes of a less fortunate generation.
Whatever achievements lie ahead, the name Darren will never brush like brawn and beef dripping around the tongue as did the great Yorkshire names of old: Herbert, Hedley, Leonard, Fred and, whatever tortuous debates followed his career, Sir Geoffrey.
Boycott would gaze upon a Headingley ovation in his self-satisfied, analytical way, proud that he done his county great service — and his country too — and content that he merited every second of recognition.
Gough’s emotions are less measured, more extravagant. His fellow Yorkshireman Steve Rhodes, the Worcestershire wicketkeeper, batted alongside him at Headingley for much of the second afternoon and said: “He was excitable, hyperactive. You could sense the buzz between Goughy and the crowd.”
Gough is treasured because he has given glimpses of an England fast bowler in the making with a boisterous naivety in a streetwise age. His exuberant, bashful smile challenges the modern truism that the pressure out there is unbearable; he plays for England, and is bent on having the time of his life.
Gough’s joy for cricket was not always apparent, for the weight of expectation has often squeezed the optimism from Yorkshire’s uncertain young professionals. He was a saviour at 18, when he took five Middlesex wickets on his debut, including that of Mike Gatting; a duffer three years later when his development was not as rapid as some demanded.
His own cussed self-belief and the positive thinking and healthy lifestyle encouraged by his American- born wife got him through. “All of a sudden things began to go well and I started to enjoy the game,” he said. “The atmosphere at test grounds turns me on. The Yorkshire crowds already know I’ll get involved with them, share a quip or say hello.”
Gough is also England’s most natural adventurer since Botham, a man who will only bowl a maiden as an accident.
“I try to take a wicket with every ball,” he said. “People say always trying to bowl a different ball is a weakness, but I consider it a strength too. Obviously I can be hit for four, but the batsman can’t build up a rhythm when I mix it up. If I come on I want to get wickets. If they want to keep it tight for an hour they can bowl the spinner.”
One wonders how a player of such simple, sun-blessed optimism will respond to the didactic message of England’s bowling coach Geoff Arnold. “Goughy is a breath of fresh air, but I’ve told him he can’t just bowl two lengths: bouncers and blockhole. He is young and enthusiastic and learning all the time, and needs to learn the length in between,” he said.
Gough’s home pitch did not suit him. From a burly 5ft 11in frame he bowls a skidding bouncer, an outswinger and, most dangerously when the ball is old and reverse-swinging, an inswinging yorker. But against South Africa at Headingley his first-innings figures of two for 153 in 37 overs betrayed his limited nous.
He bowled a particularly loose spell on the Sunday morning, a desperate last throw of the dice influenced in part by South Africa’s prolonged resistance, in part by the crowd. It left Fred Trueman grumbling on Test Match Special that none of the England bowlers was fast on that pitch and it was high time they stopped thinking they were.
Until then life had gone swimmingly. Gough’s first limited-overs international, the Texaco Trophy match against New Zealand at Edgbaston in May, saw him brashly dismiss Martin Crowe in his first over and return to bowl Bryan Young with a perfect inswinging yorker.
A month’s absence with a side strain was frustrating, but when his test debut came in the third test at Old Trafford it was startling. His swaggering fast bowling gave England a cutting edge not seen since the days of Botham and Willis. He took six wickets and gave Mark Greatbatch, unsound against the short ball, an impressive working-over.
His maiden test 50, in a decisive eighth-wicket stand of 130 with Phillip DeFreitas, emphasised his rumbustious devil-may-care approach. “I admired Both and all the all-rounders,” he said. “I’m not as good a batsman as they were but I like to be involved, to enjoy myself and crack it for four.”
Against South Africa at Lord’s Gough retired hurt after being hit on the arm during a premeditated spell of short-pitched bowling by Allan Donald. Fortunately he relishes such confrontations; he seems to attract them.
“Donald obviously got instructions to pepper me, but I don’t mind, I’ve got to bowl at them. The best response is to get them out. I’ll get a lot more of this before I’m through.”