The end of the road for Dazzler

As Darren Gough calls time on a nearly two-decade career, Rob Bagchi pays tribute in the Guardian.

It is difficult to overstate how bad Yorkshire cricket was until Gough came along. In the 1970s and 80s, the club was mired in the Boycott wars and an obsession with past glories. Nostalgics talked about charismatic characters like Fred Trueman and Brian Close and pointed to the obvious shortcomings of the brittle and diffident Chris Old and the enigmatic Jim Love. Every few years there would be a promising discovery, such as Paul Jarvis, whose youthful vigour and talent would be crushed by the weight of expectation.

And in the Wisden Cricketer, Rob Smyth calls him England's best fast bowler in 25 years, better than the much-touted Fab Four which won the 2005 Ashes. "Gough was statistically and actually superior to all of them: Harmison with heart; Hoggard with real nip; Jones with a new-ball threat; Flintoff with variety and a consistent wicket-taking threat."