60 Thursday April 28 2022 | the timesSportCricket
bursary fund for parents struggling to
afford equipment and travel. Lowering
economic costs and the barriers to
entry will do more than anything to
ensure opportunity for all.
“There is a serious shortage of
South Asian representation in our
[professional] side,” Gough says. “[Adil]
Rashid was there when I played. It’s arecreational clubs. With a wide
geographical spread, the cost of travel
alone for some parents of county age-
group cricketers is prohibitive, so the
club are committed (to the tune of
£400,000 this year) to providing
regional age-group clothing for free,
and county age-group clothing and
coaching for free, and aim to set up aWhere Gough stands out
Average and strike rate of England players with 100 or more Test wickets since
the Second World War. Only Trueman has both a better average and strike rate
D Gough FS Trueman45 40 35 30 25 201008060AverageStrike rateI
n a dimly lit corporate hospitality
box at Northampton, where
Yorkshire were playing, the
white rose emblem stood out
brilliantly against the dark blue
of Darren Gough’s puffer jacket.
The rose was in full bloom, and
for now Yorkshire’s fortunes have
taken a small upturn as well, with
one victory and a winning draw from
their first two games in the County
Championship, and a new sense of
calm after a distressing winter.
It was to the Kukri sponsor’s logo
on the other side of the jacket that
Gough pointed, though, telling me
that it was a deal he sorted out, a clue
to the all-encompassing role that he
has taken on since being parachuted
into the managing director of cricket
job (interim) in December. It has been
a steep learning curve for a man who
had spent a dozen years previously in
broadcast media.
He arrived back at a club that had
been gutted. After the allegations of
racism from their former player
Azeem Rafiq, and the removal of the
previous chairman, chief executive
and director of cricket, the new
chairman, Lord Patel, promptly
sacked 15 members of staff who had
been signatories to a letter about
Rafiq. Gough returned to a shell of a
club (the vacancies
page on the
club website remains
lengthy, while the staff
directory page does not
exist).
“I’ll never forget the first
chat I had with the players.
It was heartbreaking. They
were all over the shop. They
were upset, obviously —
they’d known these people
a long time, for some their
whole careers. They were
confused; they didn’t
know what was
happening, they didn’t
know whether the club
would survive or whether
they would be playing
cricket this year. It
knocked me back a bit,
I’ll be honest with
you,” he tells me.
Similarly, Gough
knew some of thoselet go intimately too. Paul Grayson, a
former coach at the club, is a close
friend; Wayne Morton, who had been
in charge of the medical staff, is a
long-time friend. So did he think
twice about taking the job, given the
desperate situation that he found
himself walking into?
“That decision had nothing to do
with me,” Gough, 51, says. “I found it
difficult because I knew them all but
the way I looked at it is that if I
didn’t come back at that time to help
out, to a club I love, what would have
happened? Where would things have
gone? What would have happened to
the players? So I’m getting on with
things, trying to do the best I can for
the club and the players.”
So he set about pulling together an
emergency staff; drawing up job
descriptions, shortlisting candidates
(there were more than 200 applicants
for the vacant positions) from a blind
CV process; conducting interviews,
scouring for overseas players. In
came, among others, the head coach
Ottis Gibson (“relaxed, experienced,
great record, knows cricket inside
out”); the bowling coach Kabir Ali
(“great energy, so keen to learn”), the
batting coach Alistair Maiden (“he’s
been awesome”); and the second-
team coach Tom Smith (“outstanding,
we will struggle to keep hold of him”).
Gough’s
enthusiasm,
evident in the
upbeat way he
describes his new
recruits, always marked
him out as a cricketer as
well — no England player I
played alongside had such a
bounce in his step — and I
suspect, despite his lack of
managerial experience, that he is
the perfect man for this situation.
Sometimes people and organisations
just need a lift, and nowhere needed
a lift more than Yorkshire.
Among the overseas players
recruited is Haris Rauf, the
speedster from Pakistan, who
was bowling as we chatted at
Northampton. “He reminds
me of me a little bit: raw, fast
and bit wayward, but
talented,” Gough says,
recalling his own“outsider” beginnings as a stud-eared,
long-haired football enthusiast from
Barnsley, who had never watched a
first-class game at Headingley before
he played there.
Rauf, 28, was picked up in Pakistan
at an open fast-bowling trial (where,
initially, bowlers are given three balls
only to impress) for the Lahore
Qalandars, a late developer who did
not play hard-ball cricket until he was
23 years old. Yorkshire have initiated
a partnership with the Qalandars, and
Gough is keen to try to democratise
the talent pathways in similar fashion,
in the hope of discovering Rauf-type
examples outside the traditional
routes into the game.
Amid the post-Rafiq fallout, the
crossover between race and class (and
therefore economic disadvantage) was
lost, the former dominating the latter.
Does the lack of Asian players in the
Yorkshire professional set-up reflect
the problems of race in the county or
the economic barriers, or both?
Yorkshire are keen to remove as
many barriers as they can, which
means lowering the cost of pathway
cricket and spreading opportunity
wherever possible.
So Gough’s job has involved, with
help from the likes of Trevor Strain, a
board member and high-flyer at
Morrisons, burrowing down into the
weeds of junior cricket. “For the first
time, we’ve employed four coaches
purely for the age-group teams. What
has happened in the past is that
coaches were running private one-on-
one sessions as well as coaching
Yorkshire’s age-group teams, so some
players had a favourable in. We’ve
stopped that now,” Gough says.
“We want to reduce costs where we
can. Free coaching and free kit
doesn’t come cheap, though. We are
hoping to make it as cheap and
accessible as we can. I want to have
talent-spotting for kids outside the
system, those who might never have
been to formal nets before. I want to
keep the numbers of young players as
high as possible for as long as
possible, rather than whittling down
too soon. Yorkshire has always
produced talent, lots of it, but we
want to make sure we give everyone
an opportunity.”
Yorkshire has more than 800‘Players didn’t know
if we’d survive. It
was heartbreaking’
Darren Gough talks to Mike Atherton about taking over at a Yorkshire
club reeling from the fallout of the Azeem Rafiq racism scandal
2 (6) 4343 MOHASSANA 21 A West 4-9-7 J Mitchell
3 (5) 11214 PIPS TUNE 13 (BF,CD) J G O'Shea 4-9-7 Rossa Ryan
4 (7)-5436BAYSTON HILL 47 (P,CD) M Usher 8-9-7 D Probert
5 (3) 000 DECODING 33 C & M Johnston 4-9-4 J Fanning
6 (4)^66125 NO SUCH LUCK 13 (H,T,D) R Ingram 5-9-4 W Carson
7 (2)320-5BANNERGIRL 24 M Gillard 4-8-10 J Haynes
11-4 The Bay Warrior, 7-2 Pips Tune, 5-1 No Such Luck, 6-1 Decoding, 7-1
Mohassana, 8-1 Bayston Hill, Bannergirl.8.00 Maiden Fillies’ Stakes
(£4,995: 1m 2f) (6)
1 (1) HEXAMETER R Varian 3-8-11 David Egan
2 (6) 23-TERRA MITICA 215 Sir M Stoute 3-8-11 R L Moore
3 (2) 24-ATLANTIS BLUE 163 (H) D Menuisier 3-8-9J P Spencer
4 (3)^52 HESPERANTHA 43 A Balding 3-8-9 D Probert
5 (4) 0 MOJITO MAGIC 15 (T) T Kent 3-8-9T Hammer Hansen
6 (5) 00 NACHOS CHEESE 27 Joseph Parr 3-8-9 Alice Bond (7)
15-8 Terra Mitica, 9-4 Hexameter, 7-2 Atlantis Blue, 4-1 Hesperantha, 25-1
Mojito Magic, 100-1 Nachos Cheese.12 (5)331-5SYMPHONY PERFECT 12 (D) R Hannon 9-0R L Moore
13 (3)5411-TIPPY TOES 154 (CD) C & M Johnston 9-0 J Fanning
3-1 Symphony Perfect, 7-2 Hellomydarlin, 6-1 Morag Mccullagh, 7-1 Designer,
10-1 Romantic Time, Dubai Jewel, 12-1 Fast Response, 14-1 Scot's Grace,
Tippy Toes.6.55 Handicap (£8,100: 1m 2f) (5)
1 (1)3150-GREATGADIAN 180 R Varian 4-9-7 David Egan
2 (4)0621-DUBAI SOUQ 177 (D) S bin Suroor 5-9-5 J Crowley
3 (5)6403-SATONO JAPAN 215 Sir M Stoute 5-9-4 R L Moore
4 (3)6410-BALGAIR 154 (CD) Tom Clover 8-8-11 J Mitchell
5 (2)1113-VANITY AFFAIR 306 (H,BF,D) C Fellowes 5-8-9
C Shepherd
7-4 Dubai Souq, 3-1 Vanity Affair, 7-2 Greatgadian, 9-2 Satono Japan, 10-1
Balgair.
7.30 Handicap (£3,618: 1m 2f) (7)
1 (1)-0262THE BAY WARRIOR 21 (P,BF,CD) M Usher 4-9-8
R Clutterbuck (3)6 (5)6-000STONE CIRCLE 28 (T,D) M Bell 5-9-6 David Egan
7 (2) 13240 SIR GREGORY 20 (D) M Appleby 4-9-1 T Ladd (3)
8 (8)6-412MUNIFICENT 54 (P,BF) C Banham 4-8-11 J Haynes
11-4 Soyounique, 4-1 Munificent, 5-1 Capla Spirit, 6-1 Legende D'art, 7-1
Storm Melody, 8-1 Stone Circle, 10-1 Sir Gregory, 14-1 Mr Fayez.6.20 Fillies’ Listed Stakes
(3-Y-O: £49,621: 6f) (13)
1 (6)010-6ROMANTIC TIME 16 (D) W Stone 9-2 J Mitchell
2 (11)15-25AMBER DEW 54 (D) S Dixon 9-0 J Haynes
3 (7)201-1DESIGNER 20 (D) J Butler 9-0 David Egan
4 (10)1150-DUBAI JEWEL 215 (D) A Balding 9-0 D Probert
5 (12)414-4FAST RESPONSE 22 (D) K Burke 9-0 C Lee
6 (2)02-32HELLOMYDARLIN 14 (D) G Boughey 9-0 H Turner
7 (4) 4-1MORAG MCCULLAGH 33 (D) M Bell 9-0 C Shepherd
8 (13)4-210OBTAIN 14 (P,T,D) Alice Haynes 9-0T Hammer Hansen
9 (9)610-0PRINCESS SHABNAM 15 (D) S P C Woods 9-0J Crowley
10 (1)1010-SADMAH 222 (D) K Ryan 9-0 T Eaves
11 (8)156-0SCOT'S GRACE 43 (H,D) H Palmer 9-0 R CoakleyChelmsford City
Rob Wright
4.40 Agostino 6.55 Satono Japan
5.10 Yorktown 7.30 No Such Luck
5.45 Soyounique 8.00 Hexameter
6.20 Designer
Going: standard Racing TV
Draw: 5f-1m, low numbers best4.40 Novice Stakes (2-Y-O: £4,860: 5f) (5)
1 (2) AGOSTINO R Cowell 9-5 H Turner
2 (5) KIND SPIRIT C & M Johnston 9-1 J Fanning
3 (4) DAYTONA LADY S P C Woods 9-0 R L Moore
4 (3) NORTHERN ROSE D Loughnane 9-0 Rossa Ryan
5 (1) MARTHA'S MOMENT E Dunlop 8-12 D Probert
13-8 Daytona Lady, 3-1 Kind Spirit, 7-2 Northern Rose, 6-1 Agostino, 8-1
Martha's Moment.5.10 Handicap (£3,618: 1m 6f) (9)
1 (7)346-2ESTRELA STAR 26 (CD) A Stronge 6-9-7 Rossa Ryan
2 (5)00/0-JOHN BETJEMAN J36 (B) M Gillard 6-9-7 J Haynes
3 (9)53-55MARDOOF 57 (T) Mitchell Hunt 4-9-6 A Keeley (7)
4 (6)/205-GYENYAME 294 A Balding 4-9-3 D Probert
5 (1)^53142 YORKTOWN 29 (T,BF) A Stronge 5-9-0 R Coakley
6 (2)3205-BRUTE FORCE 303 (P) R Teal 6-8-11 J Mitchell
7 (3)053-4MINT JULEP 54 D Steele 4-8-11 David Egan
8 (8)5-000HENRY THE FIFTH 50 (B,T) A Carson 4-8-7 W Carson
9 (4)^64400 MINDSPIN 26 D M Simcock 4-8-6 H Turner
10-3 Yorktown, 4-1 Estrela Star, 9-2 John Betjeman, 6-1 Gyenyame, 8-1
Mardoof, Mindspin, 12-1 Brute Force, 14-1 Mint Julep, 16-1 Henry The Fifth.
5.45 Handicap (£3,618: 6f) (8)
1 (7)1-210LEGENDE D'ART 21 (V,C) H Spiller 5-9-11C Howarth (7)
2 (4) 46124 CAPLA SPIRIT 11 (B,D) G Kelleway 5-9-11 D Probert
3 (1) 26334 STORM MELODY 13 (B,C,D) A Stronge 9-9-10R Coakley
4 (3)^03261 SOYOUNIQUE 5 (T,D) S C Williams 5-9-7 L Catton (5)
5 (6)/040-MR FAYEZ 260 (H,P) Dylan Cunha 4-9-6Laura Pearson (3)Gough took 453
first-class wickets
for Yorkshire, inset,
but in his new role
at the club the
main challenges
lie off the field