Goodbye Dazzler - and to England's Bubble and Fizz

Anyone who has watched Darren Gough for the past decade as he poured his heart and soul into the England cause cannot but have felt monumentally sad at the sight of a brilliant England bowler being plastered around the ground and powerless to do anything about it. Were it not Gough it might have been embarrassing, but you don't get saddened by the decline of icons, just depressed.

In part it was self-inflicted. He had not played a Test since the Australians put him and his colleagues to the sword at The Oval in 2001 and three operations on a right knee lacking the shock absorption to cope with a high-energy fast bowler would appear to have precluded any return. Last winter, his presence on the Ashes tour was a massive misjudgment by the selectors and his early return to England looked like the end of the line. Instead, he had worked himself back, first to the one-day team, in which he excelled, and then, against all advice, not least from his own medical people, to the Test side.

That, too, was a mistake. It had been writ large when he revealed earlier in the summer that the injury was "controllable" rather than cured. But he strapped it up on the field and in practice ("got a new way of doing that," he revealed in Perth last winter, "and it's brilliant"), chilled it down with ice packs when he had done, and took his medication and believed. He wanted to prove the doubters wrong, to roll back the years (a flashing diamond earring now adorned his lobe) and show that the Dazzler was still up for it. "To all those who doubted me," he trumpeted when his return to the fold was announced, "I'm back, so bad luck."

But the sceptics were not wrong. There is the world of difference between the strains placed on the body of a fast bowler in Test matches and the demands in one-day games. In limited-overs cricket, there is room for subtlety, with change of pace, yorkers, spinners all part of the paceman's armoury. Even on one leg last summer he showed himself to be a cut above the rest of the side in terms of nous.

But ever since the great West Indian Richie Richardson, while playing for Yorkshire, convinced him that there was no future unless he bowled fast, he has operated on the limit in Tests, with nothing in reserve as he sought to crank the speed gun up into the 90s. The wonder is not that he made it back to the side but that his body held out as long as it did.

He takes with him a proud record of achievement that began at Old Trafford in 1994 with the wicket of the Kiwi opener Mark Greatbatch in his first over, and finished at Edgbaston, when the South African Boeta Dippenaar clipped a catch to midwicket with a first- innings declaration imminent.

His 229 wickets put him eighth in the all-time England list, at which he has chipped away assiduously. He had Alec Bedser and Brian Statham in his sights and, but for injury, would have cracked them both. More particularly, though, he was after Andy Caddick. Six more wickets would have taken him past old jug ears, the fellow with whom he shared the most productive times of his career.

Differing characters these, and no great affection for one another. But respect is a different matter. They fought tooth and nail to outdo each other and in this rivalry lay the key to upping the level of performance.

As with all the great fast bowlers, when the force was with him and the crowd roared as he got on a roll, he became irresistible. No side was immune and if the highlight was his uproarious hat-trick at the Sydney Cricket Ground, then it was his Captain Marvel fizz and bubble that impelled England to a brilliant, historic series win over West Indies.

Perhaps though his greatest triumph came not on the green pitches of England, nor the bouncy ones in Australia, but rather the fast bowlers' graveyards of the subcontinent. Generations of England pace men have gone to India or Pakistan or Sri Lanka and deemed the conditions impossible. But Gough looked at Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, at Chaminda Vaas and Javagal Srinath, and began to ask questions. He became a master of reverse swing, of adapting his length and crafting into his method the variations that he would later bring to his efforts in the one-day game.

He flourished. It is hard to overstate the merit of his 10 wickets in three Tests in Pakistan that helped clinch the series, or the 14 in three games in the heat and humidity of Sri Lank - eight of them in the crucial second Test that kept the series alive - which did likewise.

At least the chairman of selectors David Graveney and the new England captain Michael Vaughan, a county colleague at Yorkshire, will be spared the task of dropping him, a move that had seemed inevitable after his performances in the first two Tests.

Now he and Wayne Morton, the Yorkshire physiotherapist who has done so much to keep Gough going, can settle back and manage the condition in such a way as to try and keep him at the top flight in one-day cricket for three more years.

One hopes too that for the remainder of the series the England management feels moved to put his experience to use in helping guide the new crop of pace bowlers through the minefield. It is not coaching that Jimmy Anderson or Steve Harmison needs as much as the wise head of someone who has been there and done it.

And he deserves a proper farewell too. Not the knowing wave of his bat as he left the field at Lord's after what proved to be his final innings, but something special. Let's hang out the bunting on August 21 for the first day of the fourth Test at his home ground, Headingley, declare it Darren Gough Day and fete him to the rafters. God only knows, he deserves it.

Highs and lows of 15 summers

1989

Takes five wickets on his first-class debut for Yorkshire against Middlesex at Lord's, including that of the England captain Mike Gatting. He takes three wickets in the first innings and two in the second. Two other England players, Paul Downton and Norman Cowans, also fall to him. The previous year he had been offered a contract by the county as well as YTS forms by Rotherham United Football Club.

1994

Makes his England Test debut one year after winning his county cap - a seven for 42 return against Somerset at Taunton, which is known for its flat batting wickets. Against New Zealand at Old Trafford he hits his highest Test score, 65. The year ends on a high. He is Cornhill's player of the year and is chosen to tour Australia that winter.

1995

The legend of the Dazzler is born. He hits a muscular, carefree half-century and follows it up with figures of six for 49 with an ebullient all-round performance in Perth. But his tour ends in anti-climax. He returns to England with a stress fracture of a foot. Makes a comeback against West Indies that summer, takes Brian Lara's wicket, pictured left, but misses half the series because of injury.

1997

After being overlooked for the Test series against India and Pakistan the previous summer he is England's leading bowler in the opening three Tests against Australia, taking 16 wickets. But he misses the rest of the series with an inflamed left knee. Then, in the last county match of the season, against Kent, he hobbles from the field with a hamstring strain which leads to him missing the winter tour of the Caribbean.

1999

Claims a hat-trick in the final Ashes Test in Sydney, pictured right, as Australia crash from 319 for five to 322 all out in the space of 15 balls. It is a fitting end to a consistent series for him. In November he takes five for 70 in the first Test against South Africa in Johannesburg but England lose the five-Test series 2-1.

2000

Starts year by being named Cornhill England player of the year before capping that with man of the series - 25 wickets fall to him as England beat West Indies for the first time in 31 years. Finishes the year in triumph with 10 wickets as England defeat Pakistan in an away series for the first time since 1961-62.

2003

A depressing winter sees him miss the Ashes series and the World Cup because of injury. Also in trouble with the England and Wales Cricket Board after criticising Lord MacLaurin. Makes a successful comeback to the one-day side as England defeat South Africa in the NatWest final. But after an absence of two years his Test return flounders, with figures of one for 215 in two matches and a mauling from South Africa's captain Graeme Smith. Announces his retirement.