during the winter months the worcestershire ccc players and staff have been revealing who is their ‘sporting hero.’
here county academy coach elliot wilson – responsible for helping to develop the conveyor belt of young talent at New Road – reveals his admiration for former england, yorkshire and essex paceman darren gough
gough amassed 229 test wickets in 58 tests – forming a fine partnership with andy caddick – and then developed into a fine one-day bowler who picked up 235 odi wickets.
he ended his career back at yorkshire as captain after a three year stint at essex and a total of 855 first class victims.
wilson played cricket for essex seconds and warwickshire seconds in addition to lincolnshire.
he said: “i related to darren gough in terms of when i saw him start playing for england in 1994, he did what i thought i was trying to do which was to be a fast bowler – and he did it from quite a small height and i could instantly relate to him.
“i was 14-15 when darren started playing for england and i was just starting to knock on the door of county age group cricket at the time.
“i just loved the energy and the way he went about things. he was full of a box of tricks and would run in hard and would give 100 per cent every day and i related to him very easily.
“before he started to suffer his injuries, he was a very good international cricketer, red and white ball.
“darren formed a really good partnership with andrew caddick with a lovely contrast – one very tall with lots of bounce and one very small and skiddy with the ball.
“it was fantastic to watch the three or four years they bowled together.
“but darren became well known for his white ball skills because as a short person, your yorkers are quite hard to play because they never really get off the floor.
“he became very good at bowling his ‘death’ stuff in white ball cricket. he became very skilful and a real good practitioner.”
