SOS for Graham Gooch: Ex-Test hero puts snub in past to answer Andy Flower's call

Graham Gooch will return to the centre of English cricket on Monday after 10 years on the fringes carrying his first rule of batsmanship; substance not style - how many, not how.
Gooch, his country’s highest Test run-scorer with 8900 in a 20-year career, has been asked by team director Andy Flower to work with England’s batsmen as specialist coach as they attempt to beat world No.1 ranked South Africa in the upcoming four-match series.
Ten years on from an unceremonious parting of the ways, when he was sacked as an
England selector following the Test defeat by New Zealand in 1999 to make way for Duncan Fletcher’s regime, Gooch arrives in South Africa on Monday to renew a professional relationship that began when he made his Test debut in 1975.

Flower, himself originally appointed specialist batting coach by former team director
Peter Moores, appears to have arrived at the conclusion that being in overall charge of all matters relating to the performance of the England team has restricted his ability to
work one-to-one with the batsmen.
He wants Gooch to perform that role with the benefit of his 118 Tests’ worth of experience at the start of England’s toughest overseas assignment since the 2006-07 Ashes tour.
Gooch admitted he was nervous at the prospect of working with England after so long out of the set-up but also ‘excited by it’.
As for how he will go about his task, he explained: ‘I’m not going to be throwing my weight around and telling people to do this or that.
‘How can I help batsmen improve? There is a big difference between batting and run-making.
‘I try to improve run-making. That’s my job. It’s not about how but how many.
‘I’ll do my best to give the batsmen the benefit of my experience, but coaching is about wanting it. To improve as a cricketer you have to seek knowledge. Wanting to know
how to improve made me a better player. The smart players are normally those who do the same.’

The 56-year-old former England captain arrives at Centurion on Monday, where he will first link up with the England performance squad, as well as Test batsmen Alastair Cook and Ian Bell.
He will then travel to East London to work with Flower and the Test squad before and during their two day warm-up matches against South African Airways XI at Buffalo Park, and the first of four Tests, starting at Supersport Park on December 16.
Flower is known to be concerned about the levels of consistency in England’s performances in all forms of the game - extraordinary fluctuations that allow England to win the Ashes and lose a Twenty20 match to Holland this summer within the same two-month period.
In the foreword to the book England’s Ashes, he said: ‘Our inconsistency is an area we have to address.
'My personal opinion is that this arises from not having drilled your basics well enough.’
Gooch may have had critics over his attitude to the more relaxed approach to Test cricket of his former Test colleagues David Gower and Ian Botham, but one thing he
was never accused of was a lack of attention to preparation.
Since departing centre stage, Gooch has developed a close working relationship with Flower at Essex and his influence has been instrumental in the progress of Cook and Ravi Bopara to Test cricket.