good week, bad week

Peter Moores - the new Duncan Fletcher.

GOOD WEEK

County Cricket

The appointment of Peter Moores as England coach is a boon for the first-class game, with the former Sussex chief a man who reveres domestic cricket as Duncan Fletcher disdained it.

Any number of competitions sponsored by bland financial services companies, we are told, will now become far more than a rallying point for retired men to gather and compare cagools and homemade coleslaw.

This being the first week of the new campaign, there was a perfect opportunity to showcase the exciting young talents who will justify huge CCC subsidies by carrying the national team forward towards 2011.

The most impressive performance of the week was without doubt semi-retired Australian Justin Langer, who kicked off his Somerset captaincy with 315.

Elsewhere in the second division 35-year-old Aussie Ian Harvey made 135 to edge past Tasmanian Michael Di Venuto, whose two fewer years was reflected in his 133.

Di Venuto's knock for Durham was supplemented in the second innings by a ton from his skipper Dale Benkenstein, who when the right side of 30 played for South Africa, while Mushtaq Ahmed's six-wicket haul in April bodes ill for August opponents of the veteran Pakistani.

However, none of these illustrates the burgeoning promise of the county ranks as well as Otis Gibson.

At 37 years young and a secure legacy of Test wickets at 91.66 apiece, the West Indian made a quickfire 25 and then took three wickets all on the very first day of the season.

That two of those victims were Vikram Solanki and Kabir Ali, both potential caps again in the future, rather hammers the point ho,e.

We should, however, be careful to stress that it is not all pension able 'fugees from the southern hemisphere who enjoyed a first run-out of the new campaign.

Among the Englishmen to flourish with centuries in the late April sun: Jason Gallian, Ronnie Irani, Mark Ramprakash and Mal Loye.

Welcome to Moores's brave new world.

The ACB

As if their golden boys' dominance of the World Cup were not satisfying enough, the post-John Buchanan era received an inadvertent boost as well with the appointment of Moores.

Tom Moody ought to have been snapped up by the ECB but David Collier panic-promoted from within and thus wasted the chance to tempt the outstanding young coach on the planet to the best(-paid) job in world cricket.

When will they learn?

When Moody returns with Troy Cooley to win the 2009 Ashes perhaps.

BAD WEEK

Test Cricket

Brian Lara's retirement is a source of great sadness for the game as a whole, but particularly those of us who cherish the five-dayers above all else.

The West Indian has rarely been an irresistible one-day force, preferring Tests as the ultimate marker of cricket ability.

With (the admittedly more versatile) Sachin Tendulkar also edging off stage the primacy of Test cricket, for so long under threat, is about to be overhauled permanently.

The next generation is at present low on superstar material but those most likely to take on the mantle - Dhoni, de Villiers, Tharanga - are ODI players first and foremost while the few already-established young stars such as Pietersen and Smith at best consider Tests an interesting alternative.

The retirement of great players often brings the sombre cliché "we will never see his like again".

With Lara, for whom the numbers 153, 277, 375 and 400 mean more than any one-day or World Cup performance ever could, that may be the case in more ways than one.

Dazzler's Quest for World Domination

Fair's fair: Gough's most recent column was an insightful narrative on how players prepare for the biggest internationals.

But just as the former England bowler appeared to be drifting back towards sanity he promptly set off skywards again by tipping Darren Lehmann to succeed Fletcher.

Fair enough, Lehmann has two WC medals to match Moody but the Australians also bear certain differences.

For example Moody has a year coaching the most improved team in the game to the brink of a second World Cup while Lehmann, who has no such experience, remains less popular in Columbo after racially abusing that country's players.

On the other hand, Lehmann has spent considerably more time in the bar with Gough than Moody has.

So, there are arguments on both sides, as there are no doubt for another gem from England's most pierced player: "Kevin Pietersen for one-day captain."

Under this one-man Old Boys Network, it will not be a surprise to see Yorkshire line up against Durham on Wednesday with an opening pairing of G Boycott and LA Kopylova.

Peter May