Gough Calls Time on His Test Career With England

Darren Gough, the beating heart of the England team for the past decade, retired from Test cricket yesterday with immediate effect.

The chronic problem with his right knee that had kept him out of the Test arena for two years until his recall for the current series against South Africa has proved intolerable and the selectors, if they were not already doing so, must find a replacement for next week's third Test at Trent Bridge. He is only 32-years-old.

With careful nurturing and management of the injury, however, Gough's skills may not be entirely lost to England. Earlier in the summer he achieved his initial aim of recovering sufficiently from a series of operations to play in the one-day series against Pakistan, Zimbabwe and South Africa, lending experience to the successful campaigns.

With its less rigorous physical demands and emphasis on bowling skills rather than sheer pace, the one-day game offers him the hope of continuing to play for England, perhaps in the 2007 World Cup.

His comeback has been anything but the blaze of glory he would have liked. Two years are a long time to be away from Tests, and the restriction placed on him by the knee meant that the snap and zest had gone from his bowling. He tried his hardest but a single wicket at a cost of 215 runs was his only reward for 53 overs of effort against South Africa.

"I've come to a decision to retire from Test-match cricket due to the injury sustained playing for England in New Zealand and - three operations later - to the subsequent rehab to get back to prove to myself and to others that I could give Test cricket a go one more time," Gough explained.

"Every day is a hard one, and my career is based on being a strike bowler and being the one the captain always turned to in time of need. But I've found the last two matches hard going mentally and physically - not just on playing days but also against the backdrop of the effort I've put in over the last eight months.

"No matter what my heart, head or public want me to do, my knee will not allow me to play Test match cricket.

"I think every player knows when it's time to step down. I feel in order for me to concentrate on my dream of one-day cricket and possibly another World Cup for England and trying to help Yorkshire move forward, I feel I have to retire from Test cricket. I hope that after 229 Test wickets and a body in bits no one thinks I have let them down."

There can be no arguing with that. Since his debut, against New Zealand at Old Trafford in 1994, he has become a talismanic figure in the side, the highlight perhaps his hat-trick against Australia at the SCG in 1999.

His 229 wickets place him eighth in the list of England wicket-takers, although with a modest average of 28.39. But the figures mask a supreme strike bowler who traded punches in the pursuit of wickets. Of post-war England bowlers who have taken 100 or more in Tests, only Fred Trueman did so at a rate lower than Gough's one every 51.62 deliveries, and only eight others worldwide. He is in the elite.

The England chairman of selectors David Graveney paid his own tribute. "We respect Darren's decision to step down," he said. "He has been a brilliant talisman over the past decade. It has been unfortunate that his career has been blighted by injury and I am sure he would have moved higher up the all-time England wicket-taking list if he hadn't been so unlucky.

"He has always given nothing less than 100% for his team and I am sure that he will be missed, but hopefully his form and fitness will still allow him to make a contribution to English cricket by continuing the outstanding form he has shown this summer in the one-day squad."