Gooch calls for prompt action (7 January 1999)
GRAHAM GOOCH has stressed the need for a stronger domestic system in the aftermath of the Ashes defeat, and revealed grave personal concerns about the desire of England's players to improve
07-Jan-1999
7 January 1999
Gooch calls for prompt action
Electronic Telegraph
GRAHAM GOOCH has stressed the need for a stronger domestic system
in the aftermath of the Ashes defeat, and revealed grave personal
concerns about the desire of England's players to improve.
He believes the county system must be improved and players need
to become more aware of the sacrifices required if they are to
become sufficiently hardened for Test cricket. He insists that
the whole of English cricket must address the problem sooner
rather than later or suffer many more demoralising defeats
against the best teams.
"Our domestic system has to be much stronger and leaner and have
only the best players involved - if you're not good enough you
don't play," Gooch said. "You will get stronger characters who
are more resilient. There are not many who come straight into
Test cricket and hit it off and if people think our domestic
cricket is serving us well they are misguided.
"When you talk to players about doing this and that to improve
they all agree, but when they go away they don't do anything
about it. The motivation to get to the top comes from within. You
have to put the game first."
Gooch believes one answer is to remove overseas players from the
domestic game. "I've always been in favour of overseas players
and what they have brought to county cricket has, by and large,
been good, but I am questioning whether counties can pay these
guys huge amounts of money," he said. "We might be better
investing that in our own players."
Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)