At present England's coaches Keith Fletcher and Geoff Arnold are not flexible enough to deal with reviving the fortunes of someone as passionate

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At present, England's coaches Keith Fletcher and Geoff Arnold are not flexible enough to deal with reviving the fortunes of someone as passionate as the young Yorkshireman, should he hit a large hurdle. Neither is his county famous for its sympathetic ear, or diplomatic player relations.Ironically, considering his views on interfering ex-players getting involved, Botham himself would be the best man for the job. But before the old master makes way for the new, a word of warning.The last person to take five wickets and score a fifty for England was Chris Lewis And look what happened when people started advising him.. AS SNOW lay on the Headingley outfield last week, the Darren Goughs of the future were pounding away in the indoor nets across the road. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, the most famous graduate of the Yorkshire Cricket Academy was baski ng in the glory of his Ashes exploits. For the class of '95, Academy members like 17-year-old Jamie Middlebrook and Paul Hutchison, and 16-year-old Ryan Sidebottom, Gough has become a role model. Why did they think he had done so well? "Enthusiasm," said Jamie as he sat on the balcony overlooking the nets where he had just finished his knock Paul, 6ft 4in, left arm over, agreed "A great trier," he said.

For Ryan, another 6ft 4in pace bowler and the son of Arnie Sidebottom, once of Yorkshire and England, it was the fact that Gough "always gives 100 per cent". This is what everyone says about Gough. Indeed, Steve Oldham, Yorkshire's director of coaching, stresses that when Gough was a member of the Academy six years ago, there were others with more talent. "He wasn't really fancied to begin with," Oldham said."But he had something about him, a self- belief. I used to say to him, `You'll be pulling up at the ground in your Rolls-Royce one day, while I'm standing in the queue with my flask'."So what exactly is the Yorkshire Cricket Academy? And do places like it represent the solution to the problems of English cricket?The Academy was the brainchild of Bob Appleyard, the former Yorkshire and England bowler and leading anti-Geoff Boycott committee member during the 1980s. For Appleyard, a member of the powerful Yorkshire sides of the Fifties, the decline in the county'sfortunes was more than he could bear.

"I felt we had the same number of youngsters coming through, but they were not being properly coached," he said "Something had to be done. I'd heard about the Australian Cricket Academy, and it seemed like a good idea to try to set one up on similar lines here."With money from the local authority, sponsorship, and a charitable trust set up by the club, Yorkshire established the Academy at Bradford Park Avenue, on the ground the county once played at next to the former Football League team. With 50 outdoor practice pitches, it operates from May to October, provides places for around 20 of the county's best young cricketers, and costs about £90,000 a year to run. The players may or may not still be at school, which means some can attend more often than others. They are paid by the day, at an equivalent rate of between £100 and £160 a week depending on age and ability.