Interview: Darren Gough

After the victory in the third Test against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford last week, it must have been some party in the England dressing room, a celebration made all the more sweet by its unexpectedness. But as England's cricketers high-fived and slapped each other's backs, as the champagne corks popped and the sponsor's beer foamed, over in the nets a familiar figure was labouring away, detached, separate, fighting a lonely battle for fitness.

Watching from a distance, the pain Darren Gough would have felt would not have been restricted to his knee, suffering as it is the twinges of two operations in eight weeks. Gough is not a man psychologically equipped to miss out. He is a character who demands to be at the centre of attention. Yet here he was, alone and apart, trying to get back into the swing of things while the party of a lifetime was going on a few hundred yards away. How it must have hurt the life and soul of England's dressing room that he wasn't involved.

"You're right, I can't wait to get back in it," he says. "For the first time for a while I was really looking forward to the start of a season. That was the plan, rest up over the winter, then come back raring to go, get some cricket played for my county, then join up with the England lads. It worked in a way, in that I feel fresher in myself than I have done for a while. But obviously it's not going to plan. Missing out on Sri Lanka was not the plan, not the plan at all."

I meet up with Gough away from the nets, recuperating in the hotel to which he has been seconded by the England management until his fitness is secured. As we are introduced, England's finest fast bowler scans the top of my head, his internal calculator measuring up the feet and inches. Not entirely sure that he is taller than his visitor, he immediately puffs out his chest, pulls back his shoulders and pushes up on his toes, arcing his back for height advantage. Whether it be out on the field, checking the speed cam to ensure he's still the sharpest tool in the box, or in a hotel lobby when someone marginally taller walks in, for Gough everything in life is a competition.

At the moment his major opponent is his fitness. "I'm getting there," he says. "I'm playing for Yorkshire seconds Monday [today] and Tuesday. And I'm joining the England squad Wednesday night. I hope to be back playing for them in the NatWest series."

But in the meantime, he says that the England set-up doesn't trust him to convalesce properly on his own, so he has been kept under close supervision to ensure his knee heals to order. Sitting in a hotel, following doctor's orders, is not Gough's style.

"To be honest with you," he says, "I've been bored rigid. I am not a patient patient. Well, you just want to play, don't you. Though I must stress this injury isn't the result of trying to come back too quick. It's just a reaction to the first operation. Unlucky really."

Unlucky indeed. When Gough decided to restrict his involvement in England's winter tour, the idea was to rest up and come charging back into the side for this long, long cricketing year which will culminate in the World Cup in South Africa next spring. While he was absent though, first through choice then through injury, the young turks of English pace bowling parked their tanks on his wicket. Matthew Hoggard, Alex Tudor and Andrew Flintoff were magnificent against Sri Lanka, carving out victory on the flattest of surfaces. Suddenly, from looking the indispensable spearhead everyone thought, life without Gough looks a less daunting proposition. So how does he feel about his new position on the England starting grid, with the new boys breathing down his bull-like neck?

"Good," he says. And there is no visible sign of gritted teeth as he talks. "It's great for everyone's confidence that England are playing so well. And to have a squad of 20 strong players rather than just 11, it can only be good for English cricket. But the big test will be against India as their batters are stronger than Sri Lanka."

He can't help that subtle little barb. One of the most endearing things about Gough is his openness. Not for him the obfuscation of cliches, blandness or going through the motions of false modesty. It might sound like arrogance, but there is a charming edge to his energetic self-obsession. This is him, for instance, talking about the Darren Gough clinics, an initiative sponsored by NatWest to tie in with the one-day series. "The kids want to be the next Darren Gough," he says. "We put 'em up against a speed camera and get them to bowl - you should see their faces, checking out their speed almost before they've bowled."

Exactly like the old Darren Gough then. "Well you do, don't you? You have to have a check. I love it, me, the clinics. Love all the kids getting excited to meet a real life cricketer. Last year, you should've seen it. Massive turnout. Amazing. Look at what's going on with football at the moment to see what we've got to do. It's got to be about showing kids you can get enjoyment from this game."

Indeed it can't be easy trying to promote any sport in football's giant shadow. "One thing I won last year was GQ sportsman of the year, beat David Beckham," Gough says. "For a cricketer to win that is important. I was on This Is Your Life, I couldn't believe that, but you do these things because you know it's important for the game to have someone in the public eye. That's the only way cricket will go forward.

"Beckham has done masses for football. He's one of my heroes, his talent is awesome. We've got to have some of that, cricket needs that. When I was young my hero was Ian Botham. You need role models. Now it's my turn."

He hopes, too, it will soon be his turn back in the middle for England. If nothing else so he can re-engage in his most vigorous rivalry: not with the opposition, but with his bowling colleague Andy Caddick. When the suggestion is put to him that comparing the number of wickets each has taken is the first thing the pair do at the end of an England match, he smiles his big, wide grin; a grin of recognition rather than denial. "I want everyone to do well, I really do," he says. "And deep down I think Andy does too, but with me and him there's no denying there's a rivalry."

He pauses and grins once more. "On his part." And then he laughs. "No, I think it's because I'm the one who gets the contracts, the fans' support, the attention," he adds. "But that's got better as we've grown together. Me and Andy, despite what everybody says, get on quite well." I like that "quite".

"No, we are all right, honest," he says. "We've got similar hobbies, golf, the movies. Before a Test match we always go to the cinema. We see all sorts, me and him. We get on all right, me and Andy." But away from the movies, what about on the pitch? How do they decide, for instance, who bowls where? "Oh that's simple," says Gough. "I say which end I want, he has the other. I say: 'Caddy what do you want the wind for? You're six foot seven, you get bounce natural. I'm five-eleven, I'm a short-arse, I should get as much help as I can out there.' That tends to get me the end I want."

Caddick, however, has been recently injured and will not be involved in the NatWest series. Thus Gough will be fighting for his place against the new blades. If he is fit enough to return ("Oh, I'll be fit enough," he says) will he feel the weight of expectation on him? Will he need to produce a special performance just to prove to the new pretenders who is boss? Just to keep a place that once seemed his in perpetuity?

"I have nothing to prove to anyone," he says. "I'm the leading one-day wicket taker of all time for an Englishman. I'm the seventh all time in Tests. I've nothing to prove to anyone. If my career ended today, I'd be happy with what I achieved. People below me are legends in cricket. I'm eight behind Sir Alec Bedser. He's a Sir, know what I mean? I have nothing to prove in cricket."

So what is motivating him, then, to get back into the game? It can't just be that he has run out of movies to watch on the hotel's pay-per-view. "Cricket is a statistics game," he says. "So you're there judged in black and white in the record books. I know what targets I have and who I want to beat. Having that in my mind helps me, no question. It's all about making your mark in history. It's not about proving anything to the world, the press, the media. It makes me laugh when I read these reports from so-called experts saying England haven't got any world-class performers, they've got Darren Gough who's too small and Andy Caddick who hasn't got much variation.

"And I think, well, what more can I do? I've got 228 wickets at 27. Everyone round the world, in the opposition, is saying Darren Gough's a great bowler. To me, people don't respect what's going on. They never do till you've finished. Suddenly you become a better bowler. Then it'll be: we need Darren Gough back."

Perhaps that is why he is so anxious to return, because the time when his career is a thing of nostalgia cannot be far off. "I'd like to play another three years at the top. I want to play until I'm 34. I think I can." And then? "Well, I wouldn't be an umpire. I'd just end up lamping everybody," he says. "No, I've always wanted to do TV. I reckon I'd be good fronting a TV quiz show, 'Come on down' and that. That's me. You could see me on that, couldn't you?"

Indeed, since he said it, it is an image, a piece of casting, I can't get out of my head: The Price is Right, with Darren Gough. It has a ring to it.